Taaro Ke Bacche

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.