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Advocacy
This quarter, the advocacy team has been involved in a number of projects with organizations such as CCPD, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and The Railways. We lobbied with the Railway to make their recruitment process more inclusive, and also filed a complaint against the Ministry of I & B regarding the inaccessibility of the E-version of Employment News. We have provided our inputs to CCPD, at a workshop conducted to facilitate drafting uniform guidelines for creating an inclusive work environment, for use by the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. We also provided facts and figures to CEDAW(Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) committee, on the state of women with vision Impairment in India, as a part of a workshop titled 'UNCRPD intersecting CEDAW'. For more information on our advocacy efforts, in the past two months, Click here.
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Research
Analysis of state policy for People with disability
The Government of India has several policies in place, to address the needs, of people with disability. Schemes have been formulated for people with disability in the domain of education, health, socio-economic and employment. Although each state has its own policy for disabled people, access to and utilization of these policies is a major challenge because of a number of factors.
Against this backdrop, the Research Officer at Score Foundation has been engaged in research to collect information about state level schemes made available to people with disabilities and analyzing them. To read about the Research Click here.
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Article on Landmark judgments based on section 47 of PWD Act 1995:
Due to the growing demand by Helpdesk callers that the issue of discrimination at workplace be raised, the Research Officer is involved in collecting various judgments given in the view of section 47 and in support of PwD. The article can be utilized by people who are victim of discrimination. The article will be available in the 'Relevant Articles' section in the 'Acts and Policies' section of www.eyeway.org by the 2nd week of July. Any suggestions in this regard are welcome.
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Helpdesk
In the past two months, the Eyeway Helpdesk has maintained its steady growth rate. During the period of April-May 2013, we received 322 new queries of which 217 have been resolved and the rest are currently in process. We received 69 new clients. Through our 7 years of operation, the Helpdesk has been growing at a steady pace, and with the introduction of our TV Show, we expect a rapid growth in the number of queries. The Helpdesk is currently being run entirely on internal funds and we are on the lookout for potential funders for the Helpdesk. For detailed Helpdesk statistics please click here.
Our Impact
A loving mother and wife, Sucharu had quit her job after conceiving her first baby and was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa in 2005. Read how our intervention plus her own determination and attitude ensured Sucharu did not let the disorder tie her down in life.
Jayati Bharatam a NGO, provides a number of facilities to individuals with Vision Impairment and severe orthopedically handicapped children in Lucknow. Eyeway's association with Jayati Bharatam started when we referred clients seeking various kinds of rehabilitation to them. Read about how together Eyeway and Jayati Bharatam made an impact in the lives of Vimal Yadav, Jitendra Singh Gautam and Raja Babu. Read here.
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The Month Gone By
Participation in the Delhi University Empowered Committee
During the month of May, Our CEO Mr. George Abraham, attended and participated in a series of meetings organized by the Delhi University Empowered Committee to suggest ways to handle teaching of Maths and Science to blind and visually impaired students under the new FYUP (Four Year Undergraduate Program).
Talk
On the 1st of June, Mr. Abraham spoke to a group of blind girls at the 6 week intensive training programme organised by AICB (All India Confederation Of the Blind). The topic of the talk was Employment Opportunities for blind people in sectors other than IT. He also spoke at the intensive programme on the 15th June, this time on the topic of the importance of inculcating Communication Skills as well as tips on how to inculcate them.
Talk at Sarthak Educational Society
On 3rd June George delivered a motivational talk to a group of disabled trainees at Sarthak Educational Society. The objective of the talk was to demonstrate through his own life, how life with disability can be fulfilling and rewarding. He also stressed on how disability should not hold you back in life.
Talk at DU
On 14th June, our CEO George Abraham spoke at Delhi University to 45 Maths Teachers post the introduction of Four Year Undergraduate Program motivating them to teach maths to and develop modules for visually impaired students. George spoke of the importance of teaching Maths to visually impaired students, and pointed out that more often than not, the problem is with teachers being ill equipped to teach maths to visually impaired students, rather than the ability of the visually impaired students to learn these subjects.
Talk at Asian Foundation for Philanthropy
While in the UK, our CEO spoke to a gathering of the Asian Foundation for Philanthropy at London, on 20th June. The talk centered around Cricket for the Blind and citizenship of visually impaired people. George spoke of his time as the Chairman of the World Blind Cricket Association as well as about the importance of recognizing and regarding visually impaired people as citizens of a country.
George Abraham on BBC Asian Network
On the same day in the morning, our CEO went live on the BBC Asian Network on Nihal’s show. Nihal is a popular DJ and presenter on the BBC Asian Network. George spoke about Blind Cricket and correlated it to the broader theme of living life with blindness. He spoke on the show alongside Nihal for an hour and also took calls from people across UK.
Ashoka Future Forum
As an Ashoka Fellow, George attended the Ashoka Future Forum, organized by Ashoka Fellowship in Pune, between June 27th - 29th. Over three decades, the Ashoka community has been working towards creating an ecosystem that nurtures collaborative change. The fellowship in India has grown to over 350 entrepreneurs working towards solutions across sectors. This year, Ashoka India launched ‘The Future Forum’ to bring together the India network of fellows to celebrate this journey and discuss their vision for the future.
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News In Brief
The shooting for our 13 Part TV Series has begun in June. We have already completed shooting in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore, and our team is currently travelling to Calcutta, Guwahati and other regions in West India. The TV Series which will be broadcasted on Doordarshan, is a one of its kinds endeavor and we believe it will be a game changer in sensitizing people about life with blindness.
In the previous two months we ran two social media campaign one on Science and Maths Education till class 10th for Visually Impaired students and another on Inaccessibility of coins in India. Through these campaigns we managed to get the conversation going and engaged with quite a few people on Social Media. The campaign was run on Facebook and Twitter. To know more about the campaigns follow us on Twitter or like our Facebook Page.
We have also started a new Facebook Page for Project Eyeway and have already garnered 63 Likes on the page. Our Score Foundation Facebook Page currently has 604 Likes and we routinely engage with people on them.
Introducing
We currently have 4 volunteers working with Score Foundation for the duration of June-July 2013 in various capacities.
Geethu Varghese is currently pursuing her BA. degree from Jesus and Mary college, New Delhi. She has done her schooling from Holy Child Auxilium school. Before this she has been volunteering with NAB for the past 3 months. At Score she is working on updating the Services Section of the newly revamped Eyeway Website. We welcome Geethu to Score Foundation.
Rounak Maheswari is presently doing B.Com (Honors) from P.G.D.A.V. College (Delhi University). He has done his schooling from Apeejay School (Calcutta). Rounak contacted Pravah in June looking to work with an organization offering a research setup. Pravah contacted us, and finally placed him with Score. Currently she is working on updating the Services Section of the newly revamped Eyeway Website.
Deepti Bisht is presently pursuing her B.Com (Honors) from P.G.D.A.V. College(Delhi University). She has done her schooling from Holy Child Auxilium School, Delhi. Deepti like Rounak, contacted Pravah in June looking to work with an organization offering a research setup. Pravah contacted us, and finally placed her with Score. Currently she is working on updating the Services Section of the newly revamped Eyeway Website.
Sophia Abbas is a masters student of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. She is currently interning with Score Foundation and is working on generating information about employment opportunities for the visually impaired. As part of her internship she gets to interview and talk to many visually impaired professionals who have very interesting and motivating things to share. In her words: “Score is a great place to work at and has a very healthy and friendly work atmosphereâ€. Her interests lie in the area of gender,popular culture, politics and development and she aspires to conduct research in related fields.
Bidding Farewell
After 8 years of exemplary service, we bid farewell to Pranay Gadodia in May 2013. Pranay was the Programme Manager for Project Eyeway at Score Foundation. He initiated and continued to manage our national helpdesk and our SMS alert service, till the time he left in May. Apart from this Pranay also conducted workshops, and was the producer of our Hindi radio show from 2006 to 2010. Given his experience in disability & developmental communications, Pranay also routinely supported our other projects including advocacy, upcoming TV serial, radio show, website & intranet. Pranay was an extremely valued member of the Score Family and he will be sorely missed, he continues to be associated with Score in the capacity of a volunteer. We wish him all the best for all his future endeavors.
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Don’t forget to watch our documentary film on YouTube ‘Life Does not Stop Here!’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF8FQEut9F4
Score Foundation’s mission is to inform, inspire and empower all persons with visual impairment in India to live independent and successful lives with equal access to opportunity and services. We gather and disseminate knowledge and information on life with blindness through project ‘Eyeway’ which encompasses our radio show, our helpdesk (+91-11-46070380), our SMS alerts and our website. In doing so we reach the blind and visually impaired throughout India, serving them with information and advice while also working to overcome discrimination and empower communities through both our grassroots and institutionally targeted advocacy activities.
We are in great need of your support. If you can please donate and help us continue the great work we do. Cheques to be made payable to Score Foundation and sent to 17/107 l.g.f, Vikram Vihar, Lajpat Nagar IV, New Delhi 110024. A bank transfer can also be sent. For details please contact scorefoundation@eyeway.org - donations are exempt of tax under section 80G of the Income Tax Act. Thank you!
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