On March 10, we made a history for ourselves, our town and country, with a change of address to a brand new campus transferred that day by those who funded and built it to those who will bring it to life every day.
We called it Handover Day.
The morning began with setting the context. Our guests – about 40—45 in all, including over 30 representatives from Cushman & Wakefield and 10—15 of our key donors — walked through the classrooms and therapy spaces in our current premises, observing first-hand how we work with children and families within the constraints of a space that was never designed for them.
From there, we moved to the new campus where we divided the guests into small groups for guided tours.
We wanted them to understand that ours isn’t just another building, but a fundamentally different approach to how space can support learning, dignity, and participation. In our new premises, movement is intuitive and barrier-free, classrooms are designed for a range of abilities, therapy and learning are integrated into daily experience, and families are central to everything we do, rather than on the side-lines.
A building only becomes what it’s meant to be in the hands of the people who run it and there they were, our therapists, caregivers, and staff who will use it, adapt it, and make it meaningful, radiant and in top form as they emerged before the gathering at different levels on our ‘ramp to the stars’.
Anshul Jain, Chief Executive, India, SEA, MEA and APAC Office and Retail, Cushman & Wakefield, our project managers, donor and ardent supporter, put it, “Buildings drive culture. They shape opportunity, enable participation, and have the power to drive inclusion. When accessibility is embedded into infrastructure from the beginning, it expands opportunity and enables children with disabilities to learn, grow and participate with confidence”.
Our campus will demonstrate that belief in action. It’s construction has been three years in the making and the handover’s the starting point. A campus designed for accessibility, like ours is, is one thing. One that consistently delivers inclusion, in practice, in culture, in everyday interactions as we’ve been doing for the past three decades, continues to be the real work ahead. As Jo Chopra, our Founder and Executive Director says, “Every child, regardless of ability, deserves to grow up in a place where they’re valued and able to participate fully in community life. Our new campus gives concrete shape to that vision. We hope it demonstrates what a truly inclusive environment looks like, and what becomes possible when inclusion is built into the environment from the start”.
Coming up soon is the actual inauguration for students and their families, who are all beside themselves to be moving, finally, to the building they’ve looked forward to and supported since the beginning. We can’t wait!
