We commemorated World Down Syndrome Day by conducting multi-level awareness campaigns on the 21st and in the week before.

We chose to celebrate the life of Moosan – the only child in our home with Down syndrome. Moosan’s story and multi-lingual Quick Facts posters on Down syndrome were displayed at prominent locations across the home, inviting visitors to engage on the topic. Our children were also dressed in the official WDSD colours of blue and yellow, which aided conversations as we helped visitors understand the need to make society a more welcoming place for persons with disabilities.

We also took our campaign out to 2 city colleges, working together with their Social Work Departments. Our staff provided a detailed picture of what life is like for people with Down syndrome and held quick FAQ sessions to enlighten students on acceptable and non-acceptable social mores.

It is a matter of grave concern to us that despite huge progress in media and technology, our young people appear quite unaware and uninformed of critical life issues like intellectual disability. Our interaction with the students revealed a definite need to start engaging, instructing and enlightening our youth on worthy issues that could well impact not only their lives but the lives of their children and, thus, future generations! We taught them that discrimination against the differently abled and even thinking that they are less valuable as human beings is the first in a series of mindsets that must undergo change. The HODs and Social Work Departments want us to conduct regular programs and we are working towards sustained campaigning at schools and colleges in the new financial year.

“World Down Syndrome Day is a global awareness day officially observed by the United Nations since 2012”, says Iyyappan Subramaniyan, our Founder & Managing Trustee. “We are happy to celebrate it for the first time at Sri Arunodayam. Our many planned activities to spread awareness proved to be a win-win situation where we not only taught but also learned new things about Down syndrome and its worldwide movement."

"Persons with Down syndrome should be given equal status, opportunities, and the respect they truly deserve in our society. We must ensure that such opportunities are provided to enable them to contribute to society in a meaningful way. At Sri Arunodayam, we will continue to strive for the betterment and empowerment of persons living with Down syndrome so that they can lead a dignified life, which is their inherent right,” he said.

Moosan – our only child with Down syndrome is spreading a message of true empathy and compassion – something that society desperately needs today.
* Read his story here
* Read our campaign report here.

When we conceptualised our ‘Special Mom’ advocacy program back in 2016, our overarching vision included the desire to start a transformation in the way society considers and responds to ‘special’ children and their families.

Our Special Mom Awards is only the beginning of a modest but potentially powerful type of advocacy to bring to light the heroic nature of families living with their ‘special’ children and refusing to take the easy way out by abandoning them.

But such heroism comes with daily sacrifice that often goes unnoticed. In our society, families of 'special' children – more especially the mothers, are often misunderstood, discriminated against and judged. Some are even ostracised from their communities. Instead of fixing the problem, the tendency is to fix the blame, which falls mostly on mothers and their children, even though the children are the innocent victims.

This is why we created this unique award – because women who brave the odds for the sake of their ‘special’ children are true unsung heroes and we want to give them the honor they truly deserve by recognizing and supporting them through our program.

However, our vision doesn’t stop here. We have set up the SPECIAL MOM FORUM whose main purpose is to empower such mothers into becoming powerful agents of change in society. (Each year’s finalists automatically become members of the Forum.)

At this stage, we know not where this vision could lead, but we do know that together with the right allies (the mothers and their extended families), society can learn to become more inclusive and respond with respect to all its members – more especially, vulnerable children.