More About Us...
Concept
Children and adults with cognitive & related disabilities are frequently marginalized in society. Parents deal with issues related to their daily care as well as the Big Question of “What after us?” on an ongoing basis. Swaniketan Project attempts to address these issues head on through the creation of a comprehensive, multifaceted, inclusive residential community for families. The concept is rooted within the family orientation of the Indian cultural context. A place where children as well as adults with special needs (ASD/DS/IDD/CP) will be taken care of while remaining in close physical as well as emotional proximity to their families. The responsibility for their care (and indeed of the entire family) becomes a shared one with professionals available to help support the family as needed. The design of this project conceptualizes residential facilities for families as a unit, with the gradual weaning of adult persons with special needs in preparation of life post the passing away of parents (or parents’ inability to manage daily 24x7 care due to their own old age).
Our Core Mission
Community Building
We believe in inclusion and hence the desire to create a microcosm of the larger society within which our children irrespective of age and/or specific capabilities will be able to live out their lives with dignity and happiness.
To that end, Tarangan Foundation aims to reach out to the larger forest trails community in order to make Swaniketan community a part of the larger forest trails community
Creating a safe haven
Creating a loving and secure environment where children and adults with special needs thrive and feel truly valued. We aim to operate as a parent/family cooperative and ‘be there’ for ALL the children living in the community even though there will be professional caregivers employed to support us.
Active Parent Participation
This is a Parent/Family movement which implies that the parents/families will be active participants and share in the responsibility of creating and providing services needed by our families in a holistic manner. We recognize that capabilities will vary from person to person as well as depending on the stage of life they are at, but we expect each one to contribute to ensuring the ethos of the community is sustained. Active participation is key, and this has to be committed to in some concrete manner to gain entry into the community. This is a Parent/Family movement which implies that the parents/families will be active participants and share in the responsibility of creating and providing services needed by our families in a holistic manner. We recognize that capabilities will vary from person to person as well as depending on the stage of life they are at, but we expect each one to contribute to ensuring the ethos of the community is sustained. Active participation is key, and this has to be committed to in some concrete manner to gain entry into the community.
Our Founders
Sunita Lele
- Special educator, Master trainer
- Founder of SaaD, Pune
- Introduced the concept of homeschool, trained parents, caregivers and teachers in interior, rural Maharashtra and BMC schools in Mumbai, author of a book on Autism.
- Played a key role in setting up Purandar project
- Extensive experience in vocational education and training for on-campus jobs.
- Started the partnership with Paranjape Schemes Construction Ltd. (PSCL)
- Key member of the psychosocial assessment of families. Is involved in training of caregivers. Is involved in the design of the facility.
- Parent of Siddharth, in his mid-thirties.
Suneeta Kulkarni
- Ph.D in Psychology - Large body of published research work in areas related to parenting, education and special needs.
- Director - The Granny Cloud and Research Director of the TED Prize winning project, 'School in the Cloud '
- Career experience includes projects specifically related to special needs for “Inclusion International”, “Parivar India”, “Sir. Ratan Tata Trust”, “AWMH’’ National Trust”
- Full time faculty at SNDT, Pune and Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai in addition to being visiting faculty in various institutions
- Designed the psychosocial assessment of children and involved in data analysis and webinars.
- Parent of Anand, in his mid-forties.
Beena Modak
- Managing Director of Tarangan.
- Masters in social work.
- An extensive career in Special education and social work.
- Founder trustee of Forum For Autism (FFA)
- Founder trustee of Kshitij, a sheltered workplace for individuals with special needs.
- Parent of Satyajeet in his mid-thirties.
Our Team
Beena Modak
Managing Director
Rajendra Kshirsagar
Director
Janhavi Paranjape
Director
Chitra Iyer
Financial Advisor
Babita Raja
Advisor
Meghali Katdare
Chief Administrative Officer
Nitin Upadhye
Project Management
Vinay Bhat
Project Management
Priyanka Chiplunkar
Administrative Assistant
Advisory Board
Anjali Joshi
Pediatric Occupational Therapist
Sandhya Paranjape
Education Specialist
Vinita Apte
Early childhood education Spcialist
Sangeetha Chakrapani
Co-Founder, Together Foundation