Yashraj lives in Mawli and is going to be 6 years old in 2017. He first came to Sankalp when he was 8 months old. He has ‘Cortical Visual Impairment’ which is associated with Intellectual Disability. When his mother Mrs Meenakshi got him to Sankalp, she entered the centre crying as she had no clue of what was up with her kid.
Back then, Yashraj could not even control his neck to sit properly; he couldn’t change sides while sleeping; wouldn’t give response on anything as he didn’t even understand light and also had issues relating to eating solid food. He used to get seizures and since the age of 1.5 years his medicines were started in consultation with a doctor, but now it’s been a year that his medicines have stopped. Because of the disability, Yashraj has a global delay in his development. But with the continuous intervention where he is now in Sankalp Learning Center, and now eats mostly all every day food items and identifies people. There has been a great improvement in his functional vision. Mrs Meenakshi had to face a tough time as she had to travel with Yashraj for about 80kms everyday up-down from last 2 years so as to continuously engage at Sankalp. Also, the fees for therapy at Sankalp has been subsidized to a great extent for this family as per the need. Mrs. Meenakshi is very thankful to Dr. Jaya and Dr. Ruchi for their continuous support, help and intervention with both the child and the mother. Also during travel time on the train, Yashraj has made good friends and all of them motivate him and his mother a lot. Mrs Meenakshi utilizes her time at the center by volunteering for activities relating to feeding, helping in the home science classes and managing some logistics. Yashraj likes listening to music and playing cricket. The best moments for Mrs. Meenakshi are when Yashraj looks at things and asks about what they are, which means his vision is getting better day by day and he is becoming inquisitive. Mrs. Meenakshi gives credit for all this improvement to Dr. Jaya and Dr. Ruchi and says that “If I will stop bringing Yashraj to Sankalp then I think he won’t be able to do anything, but if he continuously comes here then he will do wonders”.