Many people used to ask Sr Mary Theodore what she hoped to achieve at MITHRA. She would answer:
“We are trying to bring out the potential that is in each child because there is potential.
“There’s no such thing as a hopeless case. God didn’t make a useless object. We’ve seen children walk that people tell me will never walk. We’ve seen children move that people said: ‘Can’t do anything with that one.’ But you can do. What you have to have is a lot of love for children. And children respond to being loved.”
So apart from special education classes, speech and physiotherapy, Sr Mary Theodore worked at helping each child become more independent. Her hope was that as young adults these children would have the necessary life skills to take care of themselves and contribute in their own homes.
MITHRA’s LIFE SKILLS program has really taken off in recent times, thanks to the generosity of donors here in Australia.
This week the Sisters and staff at MITHRA have shared some photos on their Facebook page. They proudly explain all aspects of the program:
LIFE SKILLS are activities of daily living (ADL). They are the self-care skills essential for independent living. Here, training is given to those children who are dependent on others for their daily activities. The objective is to make them as independent as possible in their daily activities with the resultant benefit of their life becoming easier and happier. The training also aims to address the common anxiety of the parents about the child’s future after their lifetime.
The skills taught are:
1.Cooking – easy to make snacks & beverages and sales within campus.
2.Vegetables cutting and sales within campus.
3.Clothing care -drying and ironing.
4.Housekeeping skills – making bed, sweeping, mopping and cleaning.
5.Personal care and hygiene.
6.Grooming.
7.Dressing.
8.Fine motor and gross motor exercises required for learning the skills.
All Donations support the Lifeskills program at MITHRA.
