Maurya’s journey from being a capable individual to participating in the Special Olympics Cricket Tournament was made possible with the help of Saadhya and its supporters. Saadhya Trust works towards ensuring awareness of personal rights and making students with disabilities self-dependent. The trust’s initiatives are sustainable and provide bright future for individuals with Intellectual Disability & make their life meaningful.
Born in 2001, Maurya struggled with achieving basic developmental milestones (Walk, Speech) till he turned 8 years old. Due to a lack of access to medical professionals, he was trained at home, after he was diagnosed with Down Syndrome at the age of 1. Maurya, being the first person to be diagnosed with Down Syndrome in the family and the only male child in the family, was taught at home for a few years before he had the opportunity to attended a school, where his mother was teacher. Unable to learn, the family decided to relocate to Bengaluru, Karnataka, to admit Maurya in a school for children with Down Syndrome, where he made good progress for 2 years. A Financial Crisis pushed the family to relocate back to their hometown, after which the parents decided to home-school Maurya. A few years later, Maurya’s mother, working in a general school, found out about Saadhya Trust. Reluctantly, mainly because Maurya has never lived alone, the family chose to send him to Saadhya, where this ruler namesake unleashed his true potential!
Observing Maurya’s keenness for the sport of Cricket, the team at Saadhya Trust decided to train him for it. In no time, Maurya was regular with exercise and cricket. Apart from sports, he also learnt how to use the computer from his colleague and friend Veena.
Basic life and computer skills development, exercise and collaborative behavior contributed towards making Maurya independent, and subsequently he made his family proud with his participation in the Inter-State Special Olympics Cricket match held in Rajasthan, India, in 2019.
Travelling more than a 1000 Km, for a sport he loved and performed in, for the first time without his family, Maurya has shown us that with determination and valuable guidance, he was capable of being independent.
We, at the Saadhya Trust, are proud of Maurya. We also salute the dedication and effort put in by his parents and Mr. Basavaraj, a special educator at the Saadhya Trust, who was instrumental in instilling positive change in Maurya.
With over 136 students, Saadhya Trust has come a long way from its inception in 2016 - due to its network of trained professionals and the support and vision of its founders. A systematic approach with a clearly outlined curriculum is responsible for the Trust’s success, not only with Maurya (where dedication from the Trust, the parents and Maurya himself led to another success) but also with other students who have improved their vocational, academic and basic skills.