She fought cerebral palsy to be an entrepreneur

Twenty-eight year old Archana Achuthan is mildly affected by cerebral palsy, but that has not deterred her from studying and becoming a social entrepreneur.

She is the first student from Vidyasagar, (formerly known as the Spastic Society of India), who studied in a mainstream school. Having completed her Masters in Social Work, she decided to start Sampurn Counselling Centre to "make lives complete."

A few months ago, she started another enterprise, Sahayatha, which showcases items made by physically and mentally challenged youth.

This is the story of Archana, who fought her disability to help other disabled people.

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Childhood

In 1985, when I was two years old, my parents took me to Vidyasagar, then known as the Spastic Society of India. In fact, it was the same year when Spastic Society of India was started.

My parents took me there because every milestone in my life was delayed as is the case with all children affected with cerebral palsy, even though mine was a mild disorder.

Unlike most children afflicted by celebral palsy, I took to speaking very early. Normally such children are unable to sit or stand at the age most normal kids do. To address my physical concerns, I was given physiotherapy.

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Schooling

My parents had no idea how to bring up a special child. My parents who took me to many schools as Vidyasagar, however felt that I should study in a mainstream school. But all the schools they approached denied me admission. Many of them told my parents, if your child falls, we would not be responsible and other such things.

Around this time my parents met the (then) director of Vidyasagar, Poonam Natarajan who spoke to Vidya Mandir School. After which, I was given admission.

My years at school were as normal as any other child. I was not denied anything in the school. Most of the people there didn't know my condition. They thought I was suffering from an attack of polio.

I studied Sociology for my degree and Masters in Counselling Psychology from Madras School of Social Work. I had actually applied for social work but I was told that it required a lot of travelling and field work that I wouldn't be able to cope with. That was how I did Counselling Psychology.

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Initially I didn't want to be a counsellor as my mother, Madhumathi Achuthan was a Special Educator (she took up the degree after I was detected with cerebral palsy). She was also the Director of the Spastic Society of Tamil Nadu until recently.

I didn't want to do the same thing. But I was told by my college principal that what I was going to do was different. This somewhat motivated me to take up the course.

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Starting a counselling centre

Before I started Sampurn Counselling Centre, I worked with Suniti Solomon at the YRG CARE (YR Gaitonde Center for AIDS Research and Education) as a research counsellor.

In 2007, I started my own centre and it has been performing well so far. Most people come for educational and career counselling though I do counselling for behavioural problems also, for spastic children, children with autism, etc. Most of my counselling is done for 'normal people' on education and career.

Sampurn was my first step towards becoming an entrepreneur.

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Starting Sahayatha

My mother and I were running a learning centre for children affected with dyslexia and Down Syndrome. There were 50 children in our school.

After main-streaming them, we found that there were quite a few of them who could not study further. I found that parents of these children did not have any idea how to deal with them. All of them wanted their children to be economically and emotionally independent.

A couple of months ago, I started Sahayatha with Rs 20,000 to help those special children who could not enter the mainstream.

Parents of some of these children, as well as trained people help the children make paper, cloth and jute bags, folders, files, mobile pouches, dry fruit boxes, candles of all variety, painted flower vases and garden torches made of clay.

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At present, we have 15 children in the age group of 16-20 years, who are involved in making these items. Most of them suffer from severe cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, autism, mental retardation, etc.

Here at Sahayatha, we sell the items made by them and that is how we empower these special children.

Sahayatha is to provide a livelihood for these children. These children are given a stipend of Rs 1,500. This makes them happy and also provides good encouragement.

The items are priced between Rs 30 to Rs 350. In the first month itself, we were sold out and made a profit of Rs 7,000. Many of my friends and corporates bought these items to gift during the festival season.

The profit was every encouraging, after all this just the first month for our venture.

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Thus, with Sahayatha I am venturing into social entrepreneurship. From next month, we plan to have a manufacturing unit here.

After that, we plan to have a curio shop with items made exclusively by special children. My dream is to empower the disadvantaged children with employment and then include them in the mainstream.

Awards

I am happy that I was given the Young Achiever's Award by the Rotary Club, Madras in 2009 and the Young Entrepreneur award from Velammal College for starting Sampurn. Awards like these encourage you to work harder.