Report by Salil Kulkarni:
The epilepsy awareness programme at the DAV school, was the first one conducted by UTTEJAN support group outside the IPH premises. This was on 3rd of may 2013.
Short articles for publicity were given in some newspapers.
DAV school is situated at Ghodbunder road Thane. The programme was arranged in their conference room.
Dr. Shubha Thatte, psychologist and trustee of IPH, was the main person responsible for the training. The UTTEJAN core members, Dr. Mrunalini Palshikar (Homeopath & Epilepsy couseller at IPH), Dr. Ashwini Marathe (Paediatrician), Alpa Chande ( Remedial counseller at IPH) & Reema Ramchandran (Teacher), were also present.
A number of volunteers from UTTEJAN supported the cause.
The audience included mostly teachers from DAV school, and a few Persons With Epilepsy and their parents.
The Purple Day booklets (giving information on Epilepsy) and UTTEJAN handbills (which provided information about  UTTEJAN group and problems faced by Persons With Epilepsy) were distributed. The handbills were in English and Marathi.
The programme started with a powerpoint presentation, which included facts about epilepsy, such as it’s nature, types, do’s and dont’s, what happens when a person gets a seizure, etc. All the points in the presentation were elaborated by Dr. Shuba Thatte so that a layman may understand it.
The presentation was followed by an interactive session. Dr.Thatte & Dr. Ashwini Marathe cleared doubts of the audience.
Lastly, a film was shown, which was a skit presented by Balmohan Vidyamandir (Dadar) students. It showed how a student with epilepsy is treated by his co-students.
This programme was for school teachers, so that they may cope better with a student who has epilepsy.
