Rising Sun Institute for Special children, a project of Rising Sun Education & Welfare Society, is in exact keeping of this United Nation's Convention for the development of a mentally or otherwise retarded child. Mental retardation is a major health, social and educational problem and about 2-3% of the world population suffers from varying degree of mental disability. These special children are considered to be an extra burden and a stigma for the whole family and are ridiculed their whole lives.

The foundation for RSI was laid in 1984 when a close friend of Dr. A. Tawwab Khan, founder of RSI, brought his daughter to him for treatment. The child had Down's Syndrome in which the child suffers from slow mental development and low I.Q. The school was started in the dinning room of Dr. Tawwab till the number of children grew more than the number of dinning chairs. From this small school grew the vision of an institute catering to the needs of mentally handicapped children.

The emphasis of Rising Sun institute is on facilitating learning aimed at making the children cope with their disability, exploit their potential to the fullest, making them independent and productive members of the house rather than sheer liabilities. Although there are limited resources available to the Institute, it provides a very good environment for learning. There is one teacher for every 5-8 children. The children are provided with basic medical care, speech therapy, physiotherapy and vocational trainings.

In 1999, the Defence Housing Authority agreed to co-sponsor the project and offered the society to run the Institute in their ex-DHA office building. They also earmarked an 8 kanal plot in XX sector of Defence for the new building being planned by the Institute.

One of the distinguishing features of this institute is that there is no age limit here. Children, as in other Institutes for MR, are not turned out when they reach a specific age, rather they are taught a trade to earn their living or at least not be a burden on their families.

This small institute, which was started in a room with only two students, was registered in 1986 with the Department of Special Education, Government of the Punjab . The Members of the appraisal committee from the government jotted down these words after their inspection of the institute, " This is gold, pure gold." RSI is also a registered NGO with the Department of Social Welfare Government of Punjab.