Jamshedpur, Aug. 17: The support that some parents of the steel city have extended to their mentally-challenged children will now be awarded.

The Parents’ Association of Mentally Handicapped of Jamshedpur will receive a national-level award as the best organisation (Best Parents’ Association category) by the National Trust under the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment.

“Our constant effort in taking good care of our children and understanding their need along with introducing some innovative schemes has brought us to this level. We have accepted this opportunity more like a recognition that has added to the confidence of all the parents of the mentally-challenged children,” said P. Babu Rao, the secretary of the association, who will receive the award.

The organisation was formed in 2004. This is the third award in four years, the first one being the Best Local Committee Award in 2005-06 and the second one being the National Youth Award in 2006-07 under the national trust.

“Our organisation has pioneered in certain initiatives like providing legal guardianship in property and juvenile delinquency cases. The problem with NGOs is that most of them do not function properly. So, it becomes difficult for us to cover a bigger area. We are also planning to provide medical books to children who can take part in any camp in the city free of cost,” said Rao.

Seven out of the 22 district-level NGOs do not function properly, thus making it essential for the parents’ organisation to take up an active role in the district. The association now looks after the entire East Singhbhum district.

“We started this initiative because we could feel our children’s problems. We think that only parents can understand their children’s incapability of doing something and that is the reason we wanted to extend our hand through various activities and programmes. I am thankful that our organisation has got its due recognition within little time. Recognition like this will further boost our confidence and we will try to make our organisation larger by helping more parents and children,” said Rao.

Meira Kumar, the Union minister of social justice and empowerment, will give the award in New Delhi on September 12.