A young lady was brought to the police station having beaten up her husband and mother-in-law for forcing her into responding to her husband. The police were trying to calm her, but in vain! A young man walking along a railway line, saw the railway line ending and feared that if a train came by just then, there would be a terrible accident. He did not realise that he had strayed into a railway godown. Suspecting him to be a thief, the security personnel beat him up. Volunteers from AMBA had to intervene to protect the victims, who were intellectually-challenged. In the first case, the family was counselled and in the second, he is now employed at AMBA.
What is AMBA? "AMBA is my grandmother's name and it means mother. It is the holistic support we want to give the community we serve," says Sugandha Sukrutaraj, AMBA's founder. AMBA is a training and business hub for adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities and uses information technology, peer training and peer supervision processes to help them use the computer as a tool to do data entry and audit-related processes. Intellectually-challenged people experience delayed developments that hinder their capacity to go through formal education at any level.
Interactive curriculum
What is AMBA? "AMBA is my grandmother's name and it means mother. It is the holistic support we want to give the community we serve," says Sugandha Sukrutaraj, AMBA's founder. AMBA is a training and business hub for adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities and uses information technology, peer training and peer supervision processes to help them use the computer as a tool to do data entry and audit-related processes. Intellectually-challenged people experience delayed developments that hinder their capacity to go through formal education at any level.
Interactive curriculum
Why did Sugandha feel like doing this? "I was invited onto the Board of Special Olympics in December 2000 where I discovered this amazing community and realised how moderate to severe intellectual disabilities was not covered in the benchmark disabilities of the government. The families too face challenges and many a time, it results in different levels of abuse, as the community cannot cope with the open system of learning and employment. Something had to be done to empower them to make them truly inclusive and contributors to society. This is how AMBA was conceived in 2004," says Sugandha.
It took 10 years for Sugandha and her team to develop AMBA's concept from scratch. She realised that training people with low IQ was a big challenge. AMBA approached several companies in search of work that can be done by intellectually-challenged persons. In the process, Sugandha contacted Dinshaw Ice Creams, Nagpur in 2007, where Sugandhi found that they needed people to fill in a four-field data form.
From this experience, Sugandha got inspired to devise an innovative curriculum which starts with a six-day training programme for the Special Educator and two peers from visiting Special Institutions, which is totally visually-driven, without language barriers and just requires observation and matching capacity. "Within three days, the peers absorb the required skill and at the end of six days, we have more peer trainers, who train others using the interactive curriculum. Our programme is peer-driven. For instance, our Bengaluru centre has a peer director supervision, with a moderate IQ who is very efficient and takes care of everything independently. It is amazing to see the boost in their self-esteem and confidence!" says Sugandha.
Sangeetha, mother of Vinod Kumar, says her son has been attending the programme in AMBA for the last two years. He is affected by cerebral palsy and though he had attended a special school until he was 16, he had absorbed very little but had learnt a lot in just one year at AMBA. Pushpalatha, whose niece has joined AMBA after completing Class 10, is also happy that she found the right place for her.
Training in partnership
AMBA has set up 435 centres in partnership with other non-profit organisations across the country. The foundation assists the centres in training, setting up the BPO, getting work from companies, monitoring their work (both online and on site) and even meeting deadlines. Persons trained in AMBA normally do data entry work. They have worked for major companies and also with government programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
AMBA has been able to impact and train nearly 12,000 people so far. The recent disrupt with global automation has been a challenging setback for work. However the AMBA team, over the last year, is trying to match the scale of growth, with innovative training sessions. "This is a challenge which requires continuous attention and is so fulfilling to see people who come from very poor and troubled families leading better lives," says Sugandhi, who is also an Ashoka Fellow.
AMBA has won many accolades such as Best NGO in Karnataka and CII Women Exemplar Award for Education. For more details, visit www.ambaforlife.org or email shyam@ambaforlife.org.