102 physically challenged persons get jobs at mela
DINDIGUL, India: For the first time, private companies offered jobs to 102 physically disabled persons and persons with developmental disorders through a mega job mela organised by the district administration here recently. Most of them joined duty in the respective companies on Saturday itself.
While one disabled got supervisory job in a spinning mill to check quality of yarn, another one joined as warden and yet other one became a legal adviser to a spinning mill. Thirteen persons joined duty as computer operators and rest of the recruits as industrial workers.
The job mela also provided opportunity and financial assistance to enterprising disabled to set up their own businesses.
Collector M Vallalar, who inaugurated the mela, said that disabled persons and persons with developmental disorders tend to have special skills in a particular field. Opportunity should be given to such persons. They were not weak, as perceived by many.
Disabled persons should not hesitate to grab an opportunity. Over 40,000, out of a total population of 20 lakhs in the district, had some developmental disorder or other. They could not expose their skills owing to lack of opportunity, he said.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/29/stories/2010032953760300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Corporation pursues goal of better delivery in face of heavy odds
| The recent computerisation drive is cited as one of the best citizen-friendly measures |
BRIDGING THE GAP: Residents taking a look at the Perambur flyover on Saturday.
CHENNAI, India: With the inauguration of the Perambur flyover, the seventh major facility in over three years to ensure smoother flow of traffic, the pursuit of better delivery of services by the Chennai Corporation continues despite challenges.
Even as a number of residents draw attention to noteworthy works of the civic body ranging from the Marina beach beautification to bridges and roads, most of them stress the need for smoother flow of traffic and to further develop the strength of the civic body in its online initiatives taken in the past three years.
“The Corporation has constructed many bridges in the past few years and has contributed to reduction of traffic congestion to an extent. Road widening in many places has helped residents. Yet traffic continues to be a major problem,” said S.Vasudevan, a resident of R.A.Puram.
The recent computerisation drive of the civic body has been one of the best citizen-friendly measures, he added.
“Beautification of Marina beach and more parks by the corporation has given great enthusiasm to our children,” said R.B.Saravanan, a resident of Nungambakkam.
Kolathur resident K.Suresh Kumar: “The initiatives such as online building approval of the corporation and IVRS for payment of property tax have created enormous enthusiasm. But more awareness has to be created.”
According to an official, a total of Rs.1.1 lakh has been collected as tax in the past few weeks using the IVRS.
This has simplified the procedure for payment of taxes to the civic body, said the official.
Over 2 lakh birth and death certificates have been downloaded by residents using the services of the online initiative of the corporation. Similarly, the 300 handheld devices for tax collection have been procured recently for simplifying the collection of taxes and facilitating automation, the official added. More provision for downloading the property tax receipt has been done during the period.
However, Mayor M.Subramanian said the initiatives of the Chennai Corporation towards empowerment of persons with disabilities, women and the weaker sections in the past few years were some of the significant efforts in over three years.
The civic body received the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 2009, for its work in the creation of barrier-free environment for persons with disabilities from President Prathiba Patil.
Beautifying the city with more parks, the initiation of the work on a massive storm water drain project at a cost of Rs.1,448 crore and retaining the glory of historically significant structures such as Victoria Public Hall, yoga in parks and increasing the number of beneficiaries for maternity assistance in Corporation Hospitals give us a sense of satisfaction, he said.
Over 1,600 children with disabilities study in the civic body’s schools.
The Corporation also has tie-ups with NGOs to provide resource persons to teach children with moderate to severe disabilities.
He said that all newly constructed buildings of the civic body had ramps to provide barrier-free access.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/29/stories/2010032959950300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Corporation schools set for revamp
| Civic body is keen on creating a positive image for the schools |
Good times ahead: With interesting initiatives lined up, students going to schools run by the Chennai Corporation can look forward to the new academic year. A group of students at a school in Perambur recently.
CHENNAI, India: This June will mark the beginning of an exciting academic year for schools run by the Chennai Corporation, if the initiatives being planned are any indication.
The civic body, which announced a host of school education-related schemes in its recent budget, is keen on building a positive image for the schools. To start with, the Corporation Boys Higher Secondary School in your neighbourhood will be rechristened Chennai Boys Higher Secondary School. All the school buildings will also be painted in a uniform colour.
“We want students to identify with their school and feel proud about their institution,” said Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni.
In this effort towards what seems like an overall revamp, a series of initiatives have been planned. About 75 vacancies have been identified in the higher secondary schools. “We have spoken to the Teachers Recruitment Board and these posts will be filled soon,” Mr. Lakhoni said.
The Corporation is also in the process of procuring books for its school libraries. “We want to set aside half-an-hour a day as exclusive reading time for students, about thrice a week. We are buying children’s literature, comics and other informative books to promote the habit of reading among children,” he said. During summer vacation, one room in every school would be readied as library.
A mathematics laboratory for students of classes X and XII is being set up in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation working in the area of mathematics and science learning.
The laboratory, to be housed at the school in Nungambakkam, would be open to students of other schools, too. “Depending on how this works out, similar facilities will be made available to students of class VI upward,” Mr. Lakhoni said.
One higher secondary school in each zone would be identified as ‘School of excellence.’
“We will make sure that all teacher vacancies are filled and the infrastructure is good. We will also hold regular PTA meetings to make sure that the parents are involved actively,” Mr. Lakhoni said.
From career counselling sessions for students and setting benchmarks in examination scores to ensuring transportation for students and making available scholarships to meritorious students, a host of factors would make these schools “model schools” for other schools to emulate.
“These schools of excellence will be modelled on Kendriya Vidyalayas, where the emphasis will be on quality,” Mr. Lakhoni added.
In addition to these, the civic body would also gear up to implement ‘Samacheer Kalvi’ under the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act for classes I and VI from the coming academic year, by training teachers.
“We are beginning our admission procedure in April this year. We really hope that the enrolments go up, particularly at primary level,” ,” Mr. Lakhoni said.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/29/stories/2010032960990400.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
'Cognitive Behavioural Therapy helped my mind and my work'
‘Therapy helped my mind and my work’
Mark made about 500 cold calls a week
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Three years ago Mark Young was under severe pressure.
His father had been seriously ill, he and his wife were sleep deprived with two small children and he had a demanding job, which necessitated him making 500 cold-calls a week.
As the relentless pressure built the cracks started to show and Mark, 39, started having debilitating panic attacks.
“I work in extremes and my switch either used to be on or off,” he said.
High pressure
“I was the sole earner in our house. I was working like stink, exercising like mad, trying to be a great dad and husband and all things to all clients and there was not much left in the pot.
“When we were with some friends I had a panic attack. I couldn’t think straight. I was being sick and shaking.
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 There is no question it saved my life  Mark Young
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“Everything completely unravelled from that moment on.”
Mark’s GP suggested anti-depressants, but he was reluctant to take them as he did not feel depressed.
Psychotherapy was not a success and then a friend of the family suggested he had cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
CBT is a talking treatment with a practical approach to problem-solving. It aims to change the patterns of thinking or behaviour that are behind people’s problems so they can then change the way they feel.
Within a matter of weeks Mark, from Wiltshire, was on the road to recovery and decided to use his new found CBT skills to change his behaviour at work, treating people more empathetically rather than simply going for the “hard sell”.
New approaches
He said: “I work for other companies to help get them new clients.
“The way I had to do that was to make lots of cold-calls to lots of marketing directors.
“Cold-calling is something I adore and I have been doing it for about 17 years. I was making between 500-600 calls a week.
Rhiannon helped Mark work more efficiently
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“A lot of emails and calls will be sell, sell, sell and it will all be about the company that wants to sell its product.
“The way I do it now is by acknowledging that we want to sell them something, but telling them it’s a good deal and asking if they want to talk about it.
“People say they like the emails.”
Mark’s CBT coach Rhiannon Sargent, who runs her own private practice, said that changing the way he worked had been vital.
“Having reached somewhere with his day-to-day panic attacks, I wanted to hear more about his work.
“One of the things I thought exacerbated his panic attacks was the way his job was designed. He would get emails and calls without the time to interpret them.
“He now works a lot harder but a lot better and is more relaxed. He has the time to look at the feedback and is listening better.”
Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said: “Talking therapies can be an absolute lifeline for people experiencing mental distress.
“However, there is no one-size-fits-all therapy and, as with medication, people sometimes need to try a few alternatives to find the one that’s most helpful for them whether that’s CBT, counselling, group therapy or psychotherapy.
“All of the therapies available use different techniques that some people will respond to, and others won’t, so having a range of options available is the only way to ensure people get the most out of their treatment.”
Therapy catalyst
Mark said the changes had made a big difference.
“Within three months of working with Rhiannon, I had doubled the business.
“Three years down the line, she is very much part of what I am doing.
“I still have anxieties, but now I have the tools to deal with it.
“There is no question CBT saved my life, because I did have suicidal feelings.
“I will never be able to thank Rhiannon enough for what she has done.”
Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8586479.stm
Courtesy
BBC News
Can the 'Cuban-Jubans' rebuild South Sudan?
With Cuban pork roast on the menu, Salsa classes on a Thursday and animated Spanish competing with the Latin beat, De Havana club in the South Sudanese capital Juba feels as though it is on the wrong continent.
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 I think Cuba is unique; they believe in what you are – not where you belong or which religion you practise or the colour of your skin Dr Okony Simon Mori
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It is here that a group of former Sudanese exiles, known as the “Cuban-Jubans”, gather most nights to share a bottle of whisky and put the world to rights – in Spanish.
Among them are doctors, pharmacists, accountants, engineers and economists.
All were educated in Cuba during Sudan’s 21-year civil war and are now regarded as the intellectual elite of the south – one of the world’s poorest and least developed regions.
“In Juba we have more than 100 Cuban graduates from different fields, all part of the 600-plus students sent to Cuba for education,” says 38-year-old Dr Okony Simon Mori.
He returned to work at Juba’s Teaching Hospital in 2007, two years after a peace deal ended the conflict in which some 1.5 million people died.
‘Pencils for Kalashnikovs’
He was just 13 when chosen by the newly launched southern rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), to go to Cuba.
Scotch whisky, not rum, fuels the debate at De Havana
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“Our late hero [SPLM leader] Dr John Garang told us: ‘Now the elder people will take the AK-47 and you guys will take the pencil and the pencil will be your Kalashnikov,'” he recalls.
Dr Okony left his family in 1985 at one of the refugee camps in Ethiopia where thousands of Sudanese had fled the fighting between the army of the Muslim-dominated north and Arab militia on the one side and the SPLM on the other.
He travelled to Cuba aboard a Russian ship and did not see his mother and father again for 18 years – and it was not until he graduated and moved to Canada a decade later that he had any direct contact with them.
“We stayed in a boarding school in a small island called Isla de la Juventud [Island of Youth]. There were 25,000 students from different countries – most of them from Africa and Latin America,” Dr Okony says.
“I think Cuba is unique and is a very special place; they believe in what you are – not where you belong or which religion you practise or the colour of your skin.
“The only thing they care about is your well-being and your aptitude. Really, they treated us as their own children.”
Latin lilt
After graduating in the late 1990s and with the civil war still raging, Canada agreed to take about 200 of the students, who had no passports.
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 The time will come. You can’t make one o’clock to be three o’clock Havana club owner Deng Aleer-Leek
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Despite their qualifications, most ended up doing menial work to send badly needed cash to their families now mainly based in Kenya.
It was only after the peace deal was signed that the medical graduates sought retraining in order to return to Sudan.
With the help of the Canadian charity Samaritan’s Purse, they studied at the University of Calgary and then in Kenya before relocating to the south.
They not only received training in English and tropical diseases, but also on how to cope with the culture shock of returning to Africa.
“When we were coming back, people were saying: ‘Those guys are crazy.’ But being out for a long time does not stop me to go and adapt my culture,” says Dr Okony.
“I feel like I’m doing something for the people who couldn’t make it to go to educate themselves. They fought this war and some of them died, so I have to fill their shoes now to carry this heavy load.”
And despite his Latin lilt, he says he has not totally forgotten the local languages and is becoming more fluent.
Patience
Fellow Cuban-Juban Deng Aleer-Leek says he may not be grammatically correct, but his Dinka is understandable – though when he first spoke to his mother, she needed assurance it was really him.
“She asked: ‘What’s your nickname?” and when I said it she said: ‘Yes, this is my son,'” he recalls.
He is an engineer who built De Havana for his Cuban-educated compatriots – a haven, he says, they need if they are to meet their own expectations and what is expected of them.
He says they have been waiting for so long to fulfil their role of going home and leading the reconstruction efforts in South Sudan that the slow pace of change can be frustrating.
“We feel like we’re not doing our duty,” he says, before recognising that they have to be patient.
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 As JF Kennedy said – do what you can for your country not what your country can do for you Dr Okony Simon Mori
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“The time will come. You can’t make one o’clock to be three o’clock.”
Dr Okony is much more sanguine about the difficulties facing the south but says foreign investment is what the region really needs.
According to Juba Teaching Hospital’s medical director, the hospital only has 18 doctors but needs 60.
He says it is hard to recruit staff when non-governmental organisations pay so much better.
“I know they’re short of doctors, I know there’s a lack of medicine but we try to do our best because, as JF Kennedy said – do what you can for your country not what your country can do for you,” says Dr Okony.
In the last couple of years, the hospital has improved immeasurably – just as Juba has transformed from “a jungle to a city”, he says with clear pride.
And like his fellow Cuban-Jubans, he says he hopes to one day to visit Cuba again.
“I would like it, when I have time, to thank them not for me but what they did for the people of southern Sudan.”
| Southern Sudan | |
All Sudan |
| Population: 7.5m to 9.7m | |
Population: 42.2m |
| Area: 640,000 sq km | |
Area: 2.5m sq km |
| Maternal mortality: 1,700 deaths per 100,000 births | |
Maternal mortality: 1,107 deaths per 100,000 births |
| Access to clean water: 50% | |
Access to clean water: 70% |
| Life expectancy: 42 years | |
Life expectancy: 58.92 years |
Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8586783.stm
Courtesy
BBC News
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