A Rally was held with all Disability organisations participating at Besant Nagar Beach on December 3, 2018.
A Human Chain was held on 10/12/2018, once again highlighting the need of reclaiming Our Constitutionals Rights.
Nasscom had a Session on “Diversity and Inclusion Initiative” on 7/12/2018. A number of CEO’s of companies were speakers of the day – including Mrs. Ann Gonsalvez, Chairperson, MSSI, Chennai Chapter.
MSSI – Chennai Chapter “Face to Face” Programme was a Diwali Celebration on 27-10-2018. It started with the Meditation session of MS Persons and Care Givers by Dr. R.J. Kalpana , Trainer from “Institute of Heartfulness”. It was a 30 minute follow up session after the inaugural session on 11-08-18. Our MS Persons and their care giver enjoyed and felt relaxed at the end of the meditation session.
At our DIWALI CELEBRATION, our MS Persons and the caregivers were eagerly waiting to enjoy the evening. BNY Mellon Volunteers started with a game Best out of Waste. MS Persons were divided into 4 groups and were given newspapers to each individual and were asked to create things out of it and our MS Persons actively participated and expressed their own creativity in this game. One of the BNY Mellon volunteers started to give a karaoke performance and then slowly our MS Persons and caregivers came forward and sang, all of them enjoyed by cheering each other. Another BNY Mellon volunteer Santhoshini came forward and entertained our MS Persons with her energetic dance performance. After this BNY Mellon volunteers started with Housie game and the gifts were distributed to the winners.
Then we moved on to another great day of celebrating Month of Carer or Caregiver. Gifts were given to different categories of caregivers and they are:
- Raman – Best Care Giver Spouse
- Jayalakshmi – Best Care Giver Mother
- Jayaseelan and Mrs. J. Shanthi – Best Care Giver Parents
- Subashini – Best Care Giver Friend
- Vijayalakshmi – Best Care Giver Daughter
- Chitra – Best Care Giver Sister
A birthday cake was cut by those who celebrated their birthday this month. They are– Mrs. Kalaivani, Mrs. Parveen and Mrs. P. Mahalashmi, to the singing of happy birthday by everyone.
The meeting ended with a high tea.
The evening came to a happy ending with MS person, by distributing Diwali gifts to each family and wishing them Happy Diwali.
Multiple Sclerosis Society of India – Chennai Chapter participated in Seva Mela on 6th and 7th of October 2018 at Lady Andal School, Harington Road, Chetpet, Chennai. Seva Mela is an expression of the joy of service to humanity by bringing together social workers, corporate, volunteers and colleges under one roof. Seva Mela 2018 was celebrated as part of the Battle of The Buffet 2018. Seva Mela aims to raise awareness of key issues. It has been curated with an objective to build a bridge between society and social causes that need attention through a series of interactive and fun sessions. Seva Mela 2018 exhibited close to 100 NGO’s and it is an opportunity for the public to know their work and engage with them.
The much-needed awareness on Multiple Sclerosis was created by the distribution of Pamphlets, Handprint Campaign. Apart from that, in general, the public was also entertained to games like Carom board, Snake & Ladder, Ring game and Selfie Board. Gifts were given to the winners. The two-day event gave us a wonderful opportunity to create awareness about Multiple Sclerosis. 10 BNY Melon Volunteers proved to be handy in creating the much-needed awareness of MS.
MSSI – Chennai Chapter monthly meeting “Face to Face” Programme on 29-09-2018 started with the Meditation session by Dr. R.J. Kalpana on behalf of the “Institute of Heartfulness”. Dr Kalpana, an erudite and perceptive writer and critic who received her PhD from the University of Mumbai. Professionally she is a consultant for Knowledge Management. She also served on the Editorial Board for the Encyclopedia of Hinduism. It is a 30 minute follow up session as per the plan made on August 11th meeting. Our MS Person and their caregiver enjoyed and felt relaxed at the end of the meditation session which in turn helped them to stay active for the next session. Dr. Visalam, MD., FM (Functional Medicine) USA runs an alternative medicine clinic named Orange Ray, Nungambakkam and also Chief Medical Manager at Star Health Insurance. There were around 40 MS Persons along with caregivers, got benefited from her session. Dr. Visalam herself is an MS Person and so her connectivity worked with our MS Person. She shared her experience on MS and how she has handled life all these years from age 12 to 27 years. Her talk was highly motivating and inspiring to our MS Person. She highlighted the importance of Diet, Nutrition and MS. She also gave a few tips on Do’s and Don’t’s in their regular diet from her Trial and Error experience. MS Persons and Caregivers were very attentive and participated actively by interacting with the resource person.
The evening came to a happy ending with MS person, Mr. Ashokan and Mrs. Prema Srinivasan cutting a birthday cake to the joyous singing of Happy Birthday by all the 40 MS persons and their caregivers.
Delicious snacks and tea brought the meeting to a close.
Satspandana Physiotherapy Centre along with Trivandrum Support Group conducted a Physiotherapy Session at Trivandrum on 05/08/2018. The same was conducted at Kochi Support Group on 20/09/2018. The director of Satspandana Physiotherapy Centre, Mr. Sanjith gave details as regards necessary physical work out for MS persons. He demonstrated aerobics, simple stretching, muscle relaxation techniques. He also showed MS patients how to lie down and do the simple exercises and stretching for those who could not sit or stand properly. Breathing exercises were also covered in this session. The session was attended by MS persons along with their family members. An amount of Rs.12,000/- was collected by Trivandrum Support Group and handed over to MS person Vishnu Maheswari who was affected by the flood in Kerala.
Our Chennai Chapter monthly “Face to Face” Programme, saw our MS Warriors sit facing the cinema screen in Express Avenue cinema theatre on July 21 2018. They were there to spend a Saturday afternoon with their family and caregiver to enjoy the movie “Tik Tik Tik” an entertaining movie with sci-fi theme of science inter-wined. Popcorn and a soft drink gave them a good fill-up during the interval. The movie kept them spellbound circling in science for 2 hours and 30 minutes. When they came out of the theatre their smiling faces said it all… another movie was their talk for that evening.
Soroptimist, Chennai, an International Women’s Organisation, working for the needy, teamed up, with MSSI, Chennai Chapter, for a Medical Camp on “Incontinence in MS” on 16/6/2018. This was to observe Incontinence Day which falls in the last week of June, 2018.
Dr. Shyamala Gopi – MBBS, MRCS, FRCS, Consultant Urologist, currently working at Apollo Main Hospital, Greams Road and Apollo First Med Hospital in Kilpauk. She has over 23 years of training and worked in United Kingdom in Urology, and its subspecialties including Endourololgy, Laparascopy Urology, Uro Oncology, Female Urology, Neuro Urology and Urogynaecology. She is also a member Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, GLASGOW, Royal College of Surgeons EDINBURGH PLAB, UK and International Continence Society. She was assisted by Dr. Arasi and a nurse, went into individual consultation, for each MS person present, both ladies and gents. In all there were about 30 MS persons, who along with their caregivers, benefited by the camp. Prescriptions were given for urine culture tests, ultrasound and other diagnostic procedures to be done. MS persons were advised to do the tests within a fortnight, they would be called to show their tests results to the doctors and take it forward, by way of medicines, exercise, etc.
Birthday cakes were cut by those who celebrated their birthday this month. They were Mrs. Gayathri, Mrs. Dolly Khanna, Mrs. Dhanalakshmi, Mr. P. Balaji, and Soroptimist, Mrs. Sheila Rao.
The meeting was largely attended and the follow up camp will be held shortly.
1.”Nrithya Sandhya” Music, Dance and a talk by 4 of our MS Ambassadors in the presence of the State Commissioner of Disability, Mr. Arun Roy at Express Avenue Mall, Chennai on May 26, 2018 .
We had standees at Express Avenue mall showcasing the support, symptoms, facts on MS.
Our MSP MS. Grace Arundati did the compering part.
Our MSP’s Ms. Monolisa, Ms. Kalaivani, Mr. Rajesh, and Mr. Siva Kumar talked of their achievement with MS.
2. Creating Awareness in Chennai Metro Rail Stations.
Our committee members and volunteers in large numbers displayed standees banners and literature on MS was handed to the public at large who used the Metro Rail. The highlight of the event was that Metro Rail had opened up 10 new stations to the public 5 days earlier, and to encourage its use, the train rides on the length and breadth of the Metro Rail was free. So more number of people against our expectation thronged the stations. The highlights were that in 2 particular stations, Metro Rail, Central Mofussil Bus stand, Egmore Station–where long distance trains go down South and the local suburban electric trains meet, was our greatest awareness point – average 20,000/- people pass thru these 4 points everyday- huge awareness about Multiple Sclerosis.
3. The Cinema Screen at AGS Cinemas in Chennai
Courtesy to Mr. Sivakumar of AGS Cinemas: A slide portraying MS and its symptoms were shown on screen from Friday (25th May) to 30th May at noon, evening and night shows. This created a lot of awareness among the public at large.
4. Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Medical College, Chennai.
The Chief Guest was the Hon. Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Tamil Nadu.
This was in presence of the dean of the college, Dr.Mrs. Jayanthi, heads of all the 16 departments in the hospital, nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists, pharmaceutical company representatives, patients and press in attendance. 5 MS patients received MS AMBASSDOR AWARDS while Dr. Sarala ( Dept of Neurology) and Mrs. Ann Gonsalvez (Chairperson, MSSI, Chennai ) received MS CRUSADER AWARDS from the minister. Orange balloons were released into air, a CD on MS was released and Orange lights lit up the hospital building. It really echoed the theme “Bringing us Closer”.
5. BNY MELLON – Our CSR Partners held a Poster competition highlighting their ideas of MS.
On 30th May Evening , at DLF cybercity we had an indoor programme with BNY Mellon( our CSR partner) employees, MS persons, caregivers and Office staff. They had a completion of posters among the employees and MSP”s had the PRIVILEGE of judging the best three posters. Awards were given to the best three posters by MSSI. BNY Mellon volunteers had a small entertainment with a song, dance, and a talk show by our MS ambassador, Mr. Gopi. There was talk by 2 BNY Mellon Volunteers on how much their life and attitude has been guided after their association with MSSI,Chennai.
6. Lighting up in Orange
To mark the 21st year of the FUNCTIONING of Multiple Sclerosis Society, Chennai Chapter, 21 Prominent Buildings supported us by lighting in “orange’ colour…to name few :Rippon Building, Commissioner-Corporation of Chennai, Acropolis, Bergamo, Office of the Commissioner of Differently Abled, Office of Inspector General of Police, Hablis Hotel, Ashok Leyland corporate office, Raymond showroom, NIEPMED, Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital and The Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital – (2 of the largest teaching Hospitals), BOSCH Limited, Deutsche Bank, Apollo Hospital Administrative Office, Rajan Dental, etc.
7. Radio Talk Show
We thank Radio Chennai live 104.8 FM for broadcasting a live talk with Dr. Sivarajan Thandeeswaran, a leading Neuorlogist who spoke, on recent developments in MS – research, treatments and drugs.