RASA is 17 years old and today has a staff of about 40 members catering to the needs of about 100 full time people with various disabilities and they fall in the age group of 3 to 55.
RASA was founded by Dr. Ambika Kameshwar. THD was Dr. Ambika Kameshwar’s passion and her staff learnt to execute their roles, by observing her passion expressed repeatedly in her sessions. In1994, they started a training THD as a structured course for a duration of one year. The learning she got from the trials and errors, information from special educators, physiotherapists were all formulated into a full time training programme and now the THD teachers training course has been affliated to Mother Teresa University. Today the staff members conduct workshops in different schools apart from working with people who come to RASA on a daily basis. Training is given to create a lot of articles and the finished products are sold in the market and a stipend is also given. Those who are capable are also trained to setup business on their own.
RASA’s ideology is “Life is theater – different emotions, moves and communication.” Staff of RASA realize that it is joyous to train the people in this manner because it is fun. Today RASA’s THD is recognized, but it was a challenge in the beginning. The founder feels that it took a lot of effort and the good results of the application of the methodology led to the acceptance of this concept and she adds “We need challenges to outgrow ourselves at every stage and become path finders, so I have never seen anything as an obstacle”. Apart from THD becoming popular, RASA’s success lies in the fact that parents who have children with varying mental disabilities have started taking them out to social gatherings and restaurants and have started understanding them, leading to acceptance from the society at large.
RASA wants to integrate as many of their students into the mainstream society and for the rest they want to build a colony where they can live. RASA plans to reach out to as many of these special people as possible and make the magic of THD work for them.
Dr. Ambika Kameshwar as a little girl loved singing and dancing and always felt there was more to dance and music than performing. “Some direction would happen” she thought and “it happened” she says. The first seed of thought was planted when she as in the 1st year of her degree course and she had a chance to train the visually impaired at the Ramana Maharshi Academy of blind in Bangalore. There she realized for the first time how the visually impaired understood mudras, their orientation of space and the blossoming of self confidence in the children and that became a revelation to this young spirited enthusiast. Marriage brought her to Chennai and led her to teach dance to children with special needs. She developed the idea and documented it. She went on to do her MA, MPhil, Doctorate and Post Doctorate. Her strength she says is the inner power she derives out of total surrender to Bhagavan Sri. Ramana Maharshi. She is ably supported with encouragement and freedom given by her family.
With sparkling eyes and her characteristic flashy smile she concluded “The Wonder of this methodology will touch SPECIAL PEOPLE whichever part of the globe they may be".