Our story
In 2009, on retiring from her post as a special-needs teacher and educational psychologist at the Office Médico-Pédagogique in Geneva, Marie-Françoise Bisson “Mary” decided to live in the north Indian holy city Banaras (Varanasi) for 7 months a year. There she started working as a full-time professional educational psychologist for the NGO Kiran Village as part of a consultation unit for children with physical or mental difficulties, focusing on parental involvement.
As the demand became increasingly targeted towards Autism and Down’s syndrome, in 2012 Mary started to work towards the creation of a centre in Varanasi for this category of children. She wanted to work on early diagnosis of autism as it is still relatively unknown in India; she wanted particularly to include young children with Down’s Syndrome in the project.
Thus, in November 2012 Mary started a small centre called Child Guidance Clinic open two hours a day, five mornings a week. Although Mary speaks basic Hindi, in order to build a better relationship with the children and parents, an Indian teacher took on the responsibility for English-Hindi translation. Working with parents was crucial because much of the time they do not understand what is going on with their child.
The Child Guidance Clinic soon became too small, and eventually the need arose for a proper full-time school with permanent educational and therapeutic support. Back in Geneva in summer 2014, Mary founded the Swiss association Enfant des Étoiles / Taaro ke Bacche to provide support to the school in Varanasi. Taaro ke Bacche means “children of the stars” in Hindi.
The school was inaugurated on 8th November 2014.
Varanasi team
“Mary”
Marie-Françoise Bisson (“Mary”) is a retired special-needs teacher and educational psychologist from Geneva (Switzerland). She worked for the Office Médico-Pédagogique in Geneva for 20 years. She is an expert on autism and has considerable experience with Down’s syndrome.
Mary travelled to India for the first time in 1991. She loved it so much that she visited the country every year for holidays. After her retirement in 2009 she decided to spend 7 months every winter in Varanasi to carry on working with children, and to raise awareness of autism in this traditional city where it is greatly needed.
Vidisha
Vidisha is a young clinical psychologist with internship experience at NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore). She works with us part-time while pursuing her Phd.
Mukesh
Mukesh is a full-time special needs educator. He trained at Kiran Village and has worked with us since the creation of the project.
Mamta
Mamta is a full-time special-needs educator and has worked with us since July 2017. Previously she had worked for one year with differently-abled children in Chennai.
Ajeet
Ajeet is a full–time special needs educator. He has training in Hearing Impairment and Yoga, and is committed to learning about autism. He has been working with us since March 2021.
Kiran
Kiran is a young special needs educator. She has been trained at Kiran Village. She has been working full-time with us since July 2021.
Sanjay
Sanjay Albert is a part-time administrator and has worked with us since April 2018. He has fourteen years experience of working with children and young people for an NGO in Varanasi.
Avadesh
Avadesh, our driver, has been with us since the beginning of the project.
Geneva team
Marie-Françoise BISSON, President
Patricia Bell, Vice President
Joseph Hayoz, Founding Member
Ena Singh, Secretary
Solange Demole, Member
Jhilmil Bahl, Member
We are a group of friends who either have some experience of working with children with special needs, or quite simply committed to Taaro Ke Bacche.
Partners
