Kreeti Mitra Bhatia
Founder, The Special Mom Gurgaon
India
Gurgaon-based Kreeti Mitra Bhatia is one of those parents. The mother of two was completely at a loss when her first born was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. She had two choices – either lose hope in despair or take it up as a challenge and raise a happy child with special needs. The fighter in her chose the latter. And after becoming an autism strong mother, she went on to create a platform for other mothers with special needs children to be there for each other. The idea to form a
community came from the pain of another mother of a special child. “That mother poisoned her child, and then committed suicide. The news disturbed me no end. I have lived and felt that pain over the years and could relate to what that mother would have been through to have taken that drastic step. I realized that it is imperative to create a strong community of fellow mothers, not to educate each other but to lend that patient ear and crying shoulder, and so The Special Mom was born. The guiding thought behind this community is to find happiness for all of us. By doing this, my pain will reduce in some measure,” says the mother of a twelve-year-old boy with autism. The community will bring together such mothers to share their joy and griefs, good and bad experiences, inspire and motivate, and above all stand for each other if need be. Kreeti loves to hear the words, “Yes, I can do it” with a smile and with The Special Mom, that is what other mothers are trying to do. “The Special Mom allows mothers of children with special needs a place to vent out their thoughts, feelings without any hesitation. It is a place to have fun, cry and talk your heart out and let your hair down and then walk ahead with a renewed vigor. These wonderful women met once a month so that those few moments of zaniness energize them and prepares them to face their daily struggles. It is also a source of drawing strength from each other and working towards their common goal of raising happy children with special needs,” says Kreeti, adding that the best way to deal with stress and manage it is to talk about it. “This platform does precisely that. It turns stress into a manageable daily task,” she says. This platform innovated completely the approach towards special need parenting and is constantly curating important programs to empower the parents, especially the mothers. The platform has successfully launched a Dad only exclusive WhatsApp group as well. And along with this its running groups across more WhatsApp & Telegram for mothers which are classified age wise of the child & specific cohorts.
The community has grown to 6000+ members across all platforms. The only advice that the special mother has to give others is, “you add value to get value,” and she lives with this thought every moment. Kreeti is the recipient of Gurugram’s Achievers Award 2019 and She The People TV’s 40 over 40 awards 2020. Her zeal & never-ending energy to make a difference in every life she touches drives her. Her remuneration is the smiles and affection she receives in return.
“WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER” is the mission statement for The Special Mom.”