(From l to r): Jaya Krishnaswamy, SB Prabhakar Rao and D Napoleon, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment.
The Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children successfully conducted its 3rd International Conference and 7th National Workshop on Early Intervention in Mental Retardation from 24-27 November 2010 at Hotel Savera, Chennai.
SS Jawahar IAS (second from right) releasing a CD during the inaugural function of MNC. Jaya Krishnaswamy, Prof P Jeyachandran and N Kumar (right) look on.
The triennial International Conference brought together at least 25 renowned experts across the world to discuss the subject of
early intervention in the prevention, care and management of children with mental retardation and associated disabilities. The objective is to help those in the medical profession and families recognise the condition at an early age, crucial to providing support to the child.
The conference was inaugurated by SS Jawahar IAS, Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu, Welfare of Differently Abled Persons on 25 November 2010 and on 26 November 2010, D Napoleon, the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment participated.
The conference hosted many key speakers including Prof George Baroff from University of North Carolina, USA, Prof Peter Farrell from University of Manchester, UK and Ms Wenningsih from Perkins International, Asia Pacific Region.
A section of the audience at the conference.
MNC’s vision is to move towards societal responsibility of eradicating discrimination of children with mental disability. Through this conference, MNC has drawn to the attention of service providers, educational, training and rehabilitation professionals the impact of the advances made in the field of services to persons with disabilities in the past decade.
“Kalley Rathinam”- a thematic presentation by parents and children of MNC relating the preciousness of the gems to development of children.
Ajit Singh, Consulate General of Republic of Singapore in Chennai, called upon organisations working to protect the interests of mentally challenged children to share ideas with similar institutions like the Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children to improve their programmes and initiatives. He was the chief guest at the 21st anniversary of the centre on 12 December 2010.
Founded in December 1989 with three children with developmental delays, the centre has been rendering commendable services having trained over 4000 children and empowered their families till date.
(From l to r): N Kumar, Jaya Krishnaswamy, HE Ajit Singh, Consulate General of Republic of Singapore in Chennai, Mrs Ajit Singh and Prof P Jeyachandran at the anniversary function.