Inspiration
MeAsmi.org is a project started by an 18 year old with an autistic sister to revolutionize the way therapies and treatments for neurodivergent people are perceived and managed. As she and her family sat in a waiting room packed with families from all across India, each seeking treatment for a neurodivergent family member, where some had nearly exhausted their savings while others had already taken loans, all in the pursuit of “normalcy”, she yearned for them to become a unified community. Who else could truly understand their struggle? However, heads bowed, they merely exchanged polite corridor greetings and parted ways. She started gathering information from the scattered members of her unique ecosystem: the families of neurodivergent children, the therapists providing guidance, the healthcare workers administering therapies. Once all stakeholders were aligned, she, along with her partner, began building meAsmi.org, an online community that connects families of neurodivergent people, naming the site after Asmi, her little sister, whose fortitude inspires us: “meAsmi” translating to “I am strong” in Sanskrit.
What it does
Before the platform of MeAsmi came along, searching for therapists and therapy centers was a painful process for a lot of families. With vague searches on Google like "Therapy centers near me" and referrals from acquaintances, the specific needs and requirements of a child were often ignored. Through MeAsmi, families can see where other families who have people with similar neurological disorders and symptoms are getting their therapies from, for how long, which particular therapy, and what was the result of those therapies. Then the family can directly get referred to that therapy center through links on the website. This streamlines the tedious process of finding an appropriate therapist by helping both the families and therapy centers. Also, the new trends revealed through thorough analysis of the data will help the therapists tailor make better therapy routines for their patients. Now it has 3 hospitals and 50+ families associated, and it's team has expanded to professors, therapists, and PHD graduates.
How we built it
After reading dozens of books and research papers, through countless visits to hospitals and welfare societies, interconnecting with therapists and families of therapy patients, they incorporated their suggestions and needs, refining the website to be what it is today. Then to onboard as many families as possible on the platform, they conducted several sessions with families- teaching them how to use the website, creating their profiles, to reach as diverse a section of people as possible. To built the website we used languages such as HTML, PHP, Javascript, CSS, Jquery, MySql, Bootstrap, Ajax
Challenges we ran into
Two 18 year olds, starting to build a website from scratch, was a difficult start. Seeking support from professionals, professors, learning through it, let it be psychology, web development, or public interaction and management in general, and then finally completing with a project capable of changing lives of hundreds of families with neurodivergent members, was a challenging yet rewarding experience paving the way for a scientific research paper soon to be send for publishing.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Winning the Amity University Vision 2025 Award for the concept of Measmi.org
3 hospitals and therapy centers associated with us- The Child inclusive school, The Citizen Hospital, Khushboo Welfare Society
3 professors and 7 professionals part of research and development team.
More than 50 families in our community with profiles on our platform.
People supporting us with over 700 likes on our official Instagram.
WHO WE HAVE WITH US-
Dr. Amita Puri
Having published more than 150 papers in various international and national journals, worked as faculty in universities such as IIT Delhi, NCERT Defense Inst. of Psychological Research, Delhi, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, and supervising many PHD students, penning several best sellers, Dr. Amita Puri, director at Optimus Center for Wellbeing, an international affiliate of American Psychological Association, is also an internationally known clinical hypnotherapist (USA) and past life regression and an nip expert. currently she is working as director Triarup foundation, Citizen hospital & Deaddiction Centre gurgaon.
Dr. Rahul Sharma
Having done Administrative Internship in The University of Texas Cancer Centre, performed Hospital Administration in Sir Gangaram Hospital, he participated in Global Meet in London, shared results of India model as one successful Healthcare model to Global Summit in Tanzania, had results of Integrated Program Strategy published, was rewarded by Chief Minister, State Health Minister of Rajasthan, and Marie Stopes India.
Dr. Nadeem Luqman
Associate Professor, Deptt Of Psychology- School Of Health Sciences, Sushant University
9 years of experience in teaching and research; Worked on 3 self sponsored projects; Has publications:In Indian and International Journals:11 , Edited Book:4, Conferences:Both national and international:11.
Dr. Dinesh Rai
Associate Professor, School Of Engineering And Technology, Sushant University
20 years of teaching experience; Specializes in Data Structures, Database Management Systems, Data Mining, Design of Algorithms, AI and Knowledge representation, Blockchain, Natural language processing.
Dr Bidyanand Singh
Dr Bidyanand Singh is a Physiotherapist. He is Post-graduate in Physiotherapy from a prestigious institute of Govt of India, holds Diploma in Child care nutrition, He has done Mentorship programme as Advanced Practitioner in Disability Health. He has also attended a Special Training Programme for Special Children by VG Academy in Netherlands. He is practising since 2012 in Delhi NCR With Developmental disorder in children, Orthopaedic condition, Neurological condition in adults, He has depth knowledge in his field and uses various latest latest techniques to treat his clients. He is expert in using Neurodevelopment Techniques, Proprioceptive neuromuscular Facilitation and Physical Agent Modalities etc.
Dr. Priyanka Kalra Having more than 12 years of experience, worked as senior physical therapist in Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, New Delhi for almost 7 years where she has been awarded with employee of the year award in 2015 by late major HPS Ahluwalia . During this tenure she has also served as coordinator alternative medicine department & hydrotherapist. She has given various paper and poster presentations in national & international conferences like ISCOS, ISSICON etc. She has done her masters in counseling & family therapy, advanced certification in dry needling therapy & also gained her certification as antenatal & postnatal exercise specialist under international health & fitness association. Presently she is working with multiple disability centre and as a freelancer for telerehabilitation services.
Dr Lalit Kumar
Dr Lalit Kumar is an Occupational Therapist. He is Graduate and Post-Graduate in Occupational therapy from a prestigious institute of India, holds Diploma in Naturopathy and Yoga and pursuing Masters in Clinical Psychology. He is practising since 2016 in Delhi NCR with Developmental disorders in children, Orthopaedic conditions, neurological Conditions and mental health in people of all age groups. He has depth knowledge in his field and uses various latest techniques to treat his clients. He is expert in using Neurodevelopment Techniques, Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation, Sensory Integration Techniques and Brain Gym activities etc. He has been the Resource Person at various parent orientation programme/ workshop for parents of CWSN organised by Govt of Delhi. He has also been the Resource Person at Hand hold training for Special Education Teachers of Govt of Delhi organised by DDE, Govt of NCT Delhi in 2021. He has been into the Special Handicapped OT assessment camp organised by NW Zone, DDE, Govt of NCT Delhi in 2019. He has been the Resource person at various workshops and Webinars conducted by NGOs and various Private organizations in Delhi NCR.
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