KOZHIKODE: The district administration’s ‘Oppathinoppam’ project to help challenged children with priority to those with neurological disorders is getting an overwhelming response even before its official launch. The administration is planning to recruit volunteers from other districts too to be part of the project for better delivering the service. Oppathinoppam under the umbrella of Compassionate Kozhikode project aims at guiding parents of the challenged children on various government schemes and to make the paperwork easy by avoiding red tapes.
“There are many Union and state government schemes which provide assistance to the differently-abled people and their parents. There are also government orders aimed at catering the needy without undergoing normal paper procedures which are time-consuming. However, a majority of the parents are unaware of those schemes. Oppathinoppam volunteers act as a single channel disseminating information and help coordinate the paperwork to get things done,” said Kozhikode district collector N. Prasanth.
The Compassionate Kozhikode team is looking for volunteers from not just Kozhikode but from other regions to help the needy by avoiding travelling to Kozhikode to get to know about projects. “We are getting calls even from outlying districts like Thiruvananthapuram and they are ready to travel to Kozhikode to know about things. It is not human to reject their calls saying its only for Kozhikode. If we get volunteers in other districts, it would be a great help, and we are looking for dedicated volunteers who can really contribute their time and (have) patience,” he said.
The Oppathinoppam help desk has been set up just outside the collector’s chamber to make quick administrative decisions. The volunteers get intense training on various projects and insurance schemes. Akshaya centres are also in the loop to better provide services to the beneficiaries. The administration is also planning for value-added services like privilege cards for parents.
