The Indian Institute of Cerebral Cerebral
(IICP) is a national resource center for
cerebral palsy including training and service divisions.
Since its inception in 1974, IICP is reaching out
to persons with disability in Kolkata, the districts
of West Bengal and other parts of India through a
network of affiliates and partners .
In strengthening our mission towards a more inclusive
educational system and society we had organised an
Inter-School Fest and a unique Theatre Presentation
"Amader Katha" to commemorate
our 29th Founders Day celebration on Tuesday 18th
November 2003 at our Taratolla premises.
The Inter School Fest "Ektaa Mail"
organised in association with The Telegraph in Schools
had participants from regular schools and two special
schools in three events - Sit and Draw, Creative Writing
and Public Speaking. The Fest was held at our premises
on 18th November 2003 between 10 a.m. to 12:30. Eminent
personalities were present to judge the competitions.
Shuvaprasanna and Shipra Bhattacharya were the judges
for Sit and Draw, Aveek Sen and Dolly Basu for Public
Speaking, Jayabrato Chatterjee and Amreeta Sen for
Creative Writing. Celebrity friends like Rupa Ganguly,
Usha Uthup, Debasree Roy, Derek O'Brien and our Ambassador
Om Puri very kindly signed certificates that were
handed over to all the school participants during
the fest.
The Fest was followed by a Theatre Presentation "Aamader
Katha" staged by young adults with disability
of IICP's Advocacy Group. "Aamader Katha"
is an attempt of a series of workshops conducted by
Shahana Chatterjee, a Post-Graduate in Theatre and
Development from the University of East Anglia, U.K.
She worked with the Advocacy Group as a facilitator
using methods derived from Augusto's Boal's 'Theatre
of the Opprressed' to introduce the group to imagination,
observation and storytelling techniques. These techniques
were then used to build a script dealing with the
issues of access and employment rights the Group wanted
to talk about. The Advocacy Group Actors Raja, Putul,
Bharati, Nandan, Debbie, Den, Rita, Srabonti, Sumita,
Suparna and the co-ordinators Jeeja and Debashish
who have christened themselves 'Ankur' unveiled "Amader
Katha" to friends and wellwishers on IICP's 29th
Founders Day. "Ankur" wishes to travel with
"Amader Katha" hoping to reach out and create
a stir in many more and newer shores.
