Swathi Vellal Raghunandan

Founder

Swathi Vellal Raghunandan is the founder of Ishanya India Foundation (2015)[1], an Indian non-profit working on disability from Bengaluru.

Swathi Vellal Raghunandan is an Indian special educator and the founder and director of the Ishanya India Foundation, a Bengaluru organisation that trains and supports people with disabilities. She started the organisation in 2015 at the age of 25.

Early life and education

Raghunandan holds a master's degree in clinical psychology from Christ University, Bangalore, and a master's degree in special educational needs and inclusion from the University of Northampton in the United Kingdom.

Career

She founded the Ishanya India Foundation in 2015; it was registered as a public charitable trust in 2018 under the Karnataka Trust Registration Act. Raghunandan Ranganath is a co-founder and trustee. The foundation states its aim as building agency and advocacy in the disability sector through capacity building and inclusive learning spaces.

Ishanya works with children and young people with autism spectrum disorder, Asperger's syndrome, learning disabilities, Down syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and tailors its curriculum to individual students rather than applying a standard programme. In 2018 it launched Spruha, a transition programme for adolescents who no longer fit mainstream schooling but are too young for vocational training, which combines communication, behavioural and life skills with training in graphic design, web design and administrative work.[2][3][4]

Ishanya India Foundation

Ishanya India Foundation, established in 2015 in Bengaluru, works to skill and employ persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities including autism spectrum disorder, ADHD and learning disabilities. It runs vocational training, corporate inclusion partnerships and initiatives such as the India Inclusion Resource Centre and neurodiversity summits.

Ishanya India Foundation reports the following, on its own site:

In one year, Ishanya helped 72 students achieve their goals (Annual Report 2019-20 impact statement).
Under its Siddhi remedial intervention program, Ishanya completed 58 Individualised Education Plans for children aged 3 to 25, with 38 students enrolled in the remedial program (2019-20).