Animals to help kids with disabilities focus, connect in Kerala
Social Justice Minister R Bindu recently announced the initiative. In the first phase, trained dogs will be used to address neurodevelopmental conditions in children. Studies will also be conducted on using farm animals for assisted therapy at a later stage. 'Animal-assisted therapy, or AAT, is a structured, goal-oriented intervention where trained animals form an integral part of therapy, guided by qualified professionals. Research shows that AAT can lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety, improve posture, balance, and alertness, and boost confidence, motivation, and social skills,' Chandrababu C, executive director in charge of NIPMR, told the TNIE.
As part of its pilot project, Thrissur-based NIPMR will employ the services of a trained golden retriever to interact with autistic children in the age group of four to seven. 'Services of the dog, who helped improve the condition of an autistic child, will be put to use for a larger group,' said Anna Daniel, principal of the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy Programme at NIPMR.
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
How right-wing outcry influenced US pausing visitor visas for Gazans
Written by Hamed Aleaziz and Ken Bensinger The Trump administration announced Saturday that it had paused approvals of visitor visas for people from the Gaza Strip, a key pathway for those seeking medical care in the United States, including young children who arrived in recent weeks with serious conditions. The State Department said it would assess the process behind those visas. 'All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review,' the department said in a statement on the social platform X on Saturday morning. Palestinians coming to the US The move came after an intense lobbying campaign by right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who called the incoming flights a 'national security threat' in a flurry of social media posts starting Friday that targeted a nonprofit aiding in medical evacuations. Just weeks ago, the nonprofit, HEAL Palestine, an Ohio-based group that helps Palestinian families and children, began orchestrating what it called the 'largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the U.S.,' bringing injured and ill children from Gaza to the United States for care. To date, the group says it has evacuated 63 injured children for treatment, including 11, from age 6 to 15, who were flown to hospitals in nine U.S. cities this month. Many of the children had lost limbs during the conflict in Gaza. They are expected to travel to Egypt to rejoin their families once their medical care is completed, according to HEAL Palestine. The group, which was founded last year and also operates food kitchens in Gaza, did not respond to requests for comment. Earlier this month, Dr. Zeena Salman, a co-founder of HEAL Palestine, said in a statement that the medical evacuation flights were a matter of life or death. 'These children could not wait,' Salman said. 'Their lives are at stake, and this mission is about giving them a future.' Julia Gelatt, the associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, said that more than 9,000 people with travel documents from the Palestinian Authority had entered the United States on visitor visas in the 2024 fiscal year. 'This move is consistent with the Trump administration's overall treatment of immigrants as constituting a threat to U.S. public safety,' Gelatt said. 'But it is extremely hard to imagine how someone coming to the U.S. for lifesaving medical treatment would present a national security risk.' Loomer, who wields extraordinary power in shaping Trump administration decisions over personnel and policy despite not having an official role in government, said she first learned of the flights earlier this month. 'I felt like this is something that needs attention,' she said in an interview. 'Under the Trump administration, they are actively importing Gazans into the U.S. Clearly this is not what we voted for.' On social media, Loomer called attention to a video posted Aug. 6 by HEAL Palestine, showing Palestinian children arriving at the San Francisco airport. She subsequently posted about flights to St. Louis, San Antonio and Houston and claimed without providing evidence that the nonprofit was connected to Hamas, tagging state and federal officials in her posts. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, responded to her late Friday on X that he was 'deeply concerned about the incoming flights' and was making inquiries. Loomer said she spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday night to alert him to the flights and what she called the threat of an Islamic invasion. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Those impacted the most Loomer has a long history of anti-Islam activism. In 2017, she wrote a social media post that cheered the drowning deaths of 2,000 refugees who were trying to flee violence in Syria and other countries with large Muslim populations by crossing the Mediterranean. For years, she has pushed for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Sunni Islamist movement, to be designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, lobbying both members of Congress and the administration. Last week, Rubio said such a designation from the State Department was 'in the works.' Medical flights for children affected by the conflict in Gaza have been occurring for well over a year, organized by a variety of charities. Dr. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency room physician who volunteers for HEAL Palestine, said that he had previously treated some of the children who recently arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area during his time in Gaza. He said that the injuries included orthopedic trauma and severe burns and that they were exacerbated by malnutrition. 'I am saddened to see fear and hate permeate within a small yet vocal segment of our society, whereby people have dehumanized children,' he said, by pushing for policies to withhold 'life- and limb-saving care.' Andrew Miller, a former senior State Department official on Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the Biden administration, said that Gaza residents could only get visas to the U.S. by appearing at an embassy in Jerusalem, Cairo or Amman, Jordan, and undergo security checks. 'What's more, just to get to a U.S. Embassy outside of Gaza, the Israeli military and security services had to clear them and anyone accompanying them,' he said, adding: 'From what I saw, any insinuation that we were taking an unusual security risk in these cases is baseless.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Free medical camp at Srisailam on August 18
A free medical camp will be held at the Srisailam temple hospital on August 18 (Monday) for the benefit of locals and devotees visiting the shrine. Expert doctors in general medicine, orthopedics, neurology and others will conduct tests and provide medicines free of cost. Paediatricians would also be available and medicines will be provided free after tests. Srisailam temple executive office (EO) M. Srinivasa Rao said Tadipatri-based M. Mallikarjuna Naidu has arranged the medical camp.
NDTV
5 hours ago
- NDTV
US Suspends Visas For Gazans Seeking Medical Aid After Far-Right Campaign
The US government said Saturday it is suspending visitor visas for Gazans after a far-right influencer with the ear of President Donald Trump complained that wounded Palestinians had been allowed to seek medical treatment in the United States. The announcement came one day after a series of furious social media posts by Laura Loomer, who is known for promoting racist conspiracy theories and claiming that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job. "All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days," the State Department, which is led by Marco Rubio, wrote on X. In a series of posts on X Friday, Loomer called on the State Department to stop giving visas to Palestinians from Gaza who she said were "pro-HAMAS... affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and funded by Qatar," without providing evidence. Loomer's target was the US-based charity HEAL Palestine, which said last week it had helped 11 critically wounded Gazan children -- as well as their caregivers and siblings -- arrive safely in the US for medical treatment. It was "the largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the US," the charity said on its website. 'Dangerous and inhumane' "Truly unacceptable," Loomer wrote in another X post. "Someone needs to be fired at @StateDept when @marcorubio figures out who approved the visas." "Qatar transported these GAZANS into the US via @qatarairways," she said. Qatar is "literally flooding our country with jihadis," she added. Loomer said she had spoken to the staff of Republican Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, adding that they were "also looking into how these GAZANS got visas to come into the US." Republican Congressman Randy Fine explicitly commended Loomer after the visa change was announced, in a sign of her sway over some US policy. "Massive credit needs to be given to @LauraLoomer for uncovering this and making me and other officials aware. Well done, Laura," Fine wrote on X. The Palestine Children's Relief Fund, a US-based charity, called on the Trump administration to "reverse this dangerous and inhumane decision." Over the last 30 years the charity has evacuated thousands of Palestinian children to the US for medical care, it said a statement. "Medical evacuations are a lifeline for the children of Gaza who would otherwise face unimaginable suffering or death due to the collapse of medical infrastructure in Gaza." Though Loomer holds no official position, she wields significant power, and is reported to have successfully pushed for the dismissal of several senior US security officials she deemed disloyal to Trump. In July, Loomer took aim at a job offer made to a highly qualified Biden-era official for a prestigious position at the West Point military academy. The Pentagon rescinded the offer one day later. Trump also fired the head of the highly sensitive National Security Agency, Timothy Haugh, and his deputy Wendy Noble in April at the apparent urging of Loomer, after she met with the president at the White House. "No other content creator or journalist has gotten as many Biden holdovers fired from the Trump admin!" Loomer posted on X Saturday.
