Educate a visually impaired child by Indian Association for the Blind

As schools started their physical classes, our students were happy returning. As it was long gap, it was little challenging for the teachers to get them on track. 65 students were getting benefitted through this program who are from the under privileged community of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. This program provides free education for the visually challenged children which is a dream for them. Surely Education can lift the entire family & community.

Our vision is to make the visually challenged community self reliant by provide good education free of cost. In society, there is still a weaker community with lack of basic essentials and education. In some cases, due to lack of awareness on importance of education, even their parents keep the children at home, sending them for work, pursing early marriage etc. They are showing little hesitation to send their children to residential school. Our plan is to increase the beneficiaries count and reduce their medical related problems as much as we can.

Guna is a mischievous boy who lost his vision few years after his birth. He belongs to a lower middle class family. His parents are workers and they lead a very struggled life. They cannot afford money for his medical expenses which is very high. Special education is a far cry in that situation. He went to a nearby school but not regularly. After getting to know about IAB, he joined here and now he is regularly attending his classes. He is receiving a quality education, food and accommodation free of cost. His parents are happy too.

Our major milestone this year was having visually challenged children learn through an online medium. All our students have been trained with the skill of operating smartphones. They can use them to continue their classes even in a COVID pandemic time. The majority of them are in and around Madurai. Through this project, nearly 80–90 students benefited. This program provides a standard special education for the underprivileged, visually challenged community.

Identifying the children and creating awareness of the importance of education among the visually challenged community is challenging. During COVID, we initially faced a struggle with using virtual classes. Later, we worked and succeeded in that. We are to introduce soft skills training (spoken English, interpersonal skills, etc.) and some more extracurricular activities (Silambam, aerobatics, etc.) too. Our plan is to bring the visually challenged community on par with the sighted community in all perspectives. 

Hi, I am Dinesh. I am a visually challenged boy. I lost my vision after my birth. My parents are temporary workers whose income cannot be predicted. Taking care of the sighted children in this marginalised community is a very tough job, though I too was blind. The situation is becoming worse. They tried a lot to bring my vision back, but it never worked. I went to a nearby normal school for my elementary education. There, I faced a lot of struggles in learning. Then I left the school. Later, after learning about IAB's free education program, I got admission. Initially, it was very difficult for me to start my learning from the basics because of my break in my education. Homesickness is also paired with this. So I told my teachers to leave me alone. I was not interested in learning. Because of my strong-willed decision, my parents took me back to school. A week later, my class teacher called and counselled me and my parents about the importance of education. As a result of her tireless effort, I came to school with a strong determination to learn and achieve my dream. Now, I am performing well in my studies, and one day I will achieve my dream. I will make my parents and teachers proud. 

This project supports the socio-economic visually challenged students with standard education. Due to COVID, Physical classes were halted and moved to virtual classes. Different Meeting Rooms were created, and classes were conducted by our regular teachers from their residences and later from school. Both the teachers and students were given dedicated training on online training pedagogy. It was amazing to see that they raised our expectations and the online classes were almost as effective as the regular classes. The routine chores like assessments, improvement plans, separate coaching for the slow learners were all conducted through the audio bridge. Now they are comfortable and excel in online platforms. Nearly 75 visually challenged students were benefitted from this program. The majority of them are from the southern Tamil Nadu region. It's very happy & proud to see that visually challenged students on par with normal students are studying online.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped at national borders. It has affected people regardless of nationality, level of education, income or gender. Education is no exception. During the pandemic, remote learning became a lifeline for education. The government has taken measures to help students learn at home. When it comes to visually challenged students education, it is quite hard to frame the pattern of virtual classes. We strived our best to ensure that there is minimal loss in imparting education to our students. Team of teachers worked on different applications & software in finding the best and many mocks have been conducted. Based on the outcomes, we conducted online classes through dedicated Audio Bridge subscribed through Tata Telecom. Access to the Internet is quite challenging today in certain areas. As Government has planned to open schools for Grade 9- 12 by Sep 1st. The mode of teaching is back to physical classes and students were back to school. Special care will be provided for the students who need it. Emphasis them by maintaining safe and social distancing, Frequent washing of hands etc by awareness audio /video.

Impact story from the ground: Hi, I am Anushya, daughter of a daily labourer studying in Grade 11. I have completed my Grade X with good marks. I feared that COVID Lockdowns and shutdown of schools will let me down from the path of my Educational Journey. But never. With the help of the Indian Association for the Blind (IAB), I am continuing my education online. Initially, I faced many struggles like Basic Mobile, inadequate Data plans. IAB has provided smartphones. My class teacher, helped by downloading Audio Bridge software to attend online classes, read books and submit my assignments. Study Materials are also provided to my home by my School.Received a lot of support for my education from the Indian Association for the Blind (IAB) through GiveIndia & their donors.

This program supports us in providing the special education to the visually challenged children who belong to below poverty line.
Due to this COVID Crisis, physical classes are stopped and classes are being taken through online mode.
As this is a completely new approach in case of school students , they are much excited and enthusiastic in learning their classes. Visually challenged students have learnt more in field of technology by using Google Meet, Zoom Etc. With this technology bases education, Visually challenged students benefits a lot by recording their classes, hints rather than physical writing which saves their time.
We have arranged one to one weekly assessments to monitor their performance and additional sessions will be conducted for the needed ones.
They are preparing & submitting their assignments independently and attending their classes, exams promptly. From last week , Physical Classes for Grade XII & X has been started considering their board examinations. With respect to Government rule, offline classes for other grade will be soon started.

Thanks for educating us.

In this second quarter of academics, we have focused on examinations. Students were given special attention to their academics and preparation examinations.

As part of entertainment, we have celebrated school annual day programme and executed our excursion trip etc . Several competitions like eloquation, speech were conducted through
Elakkiya Mandram and interactive clubs.
Students have actively participated in sports day celebration. Events like March past, yoga, karate were took part in that occasion.

Year 2020 had started up in a pleasant takeoff and unfortunately COVID 19 has messing up it. Hope we all bang back with safe and healthy.

Children engaged in diverse activities

Program Update

We have mainly focused on technology based education like using smart classes. Students can record their lesson and retrieve it anytime anywhere . Now a days they are using smart phones as their learning aid.
Our Students have been honored by our Honorable Governor,Mr.Banwarilal Purohit for being the champions in state level Braille reading and writing tournament. Several day celebrations like white Cane day,International White Cane day were celebrated with several competions like essay writing, elocution, etc..
As treat for an eye , our students were taken to pettai Movie as an entertainment. Another feather on a cap – IAB students showcased their performance in Board examinations with 100% result. training on E-pub file creation, computer and android mobile is conducted .

Story from the field

Gurusamy belongs to a remote village in Tamilnadu. His parents are daily wages and the annual family income is less than INR 40000. He is born blind. He had to discontinue his studies due to his blindness and family’s financial status. But his dreams of serving his society never stopped him.
He studied at home by his friends and later his family came to knew about IAB. Initially, his parents refused to send gurusamy to residential school. IAB team members convinced them by creating awareness of the importance of education in life, especially for visually challenged students.
Occasional support and a few words of encouragement were all that was required for this miracle to happen.
Then he admitted in IAB. With the help of teachers and donors who covers his educational expenses, gurusamy excelled well in his studies and obtained a good percentage in Grade X. Now he feel s happy and build a confidence that he can achieve his dream and support his family.
Gurusamy can now speak English, and the confidence is amazing. He is not only self-reliant but supporting his siblings in studies as well.
Today, he is studying in class XI and he aspires to pursue a bachelor degree in social welfare studies.
Children like Gurusamy can safeguard their future if they get a second chance at life.

Program Update

Several new initiatives has been implemented in the last 6 months. Increased the learning sessions of Computer class, Spoken English and Moral studies. Literature meetings, Motivational workshops have been conducted for the development of students. The educational visit had arranged to learn the theories effectively instead of memorizing. Special care is being given for slow learners. Students have cracked their quarterly examinations with good results. Day celebrations (Independence Day, Environmental Day) are celebrated by the way of creating awareness and realizing their responsibilities in today's world. We are planning to bring Visually challenged students as par with Normal students in all the floors (Education, Games, research etc..)

Story from the field

Master Sivaraj is a young and energetic boy belonging to very poor family. His eye sight keeps deteriorating day by day. Her parents are daily wages. Their family income is not up to the level. Though his educational expenses become a barrier for his father he never ready to give up sivaraj's education. Till last year sivaraj studied in nearby normal school. He cant able to perform well due to his sight problem and lack of braille knowledge. He struggles lot. After joining in IAB, he studied Braille language and got confident that he can achieve his dream. He is very happy and now he can able to read , study and write in Braille.