Sponsor living expenses of a visually challenged student by Indian Association for the Blind

IAB provides sophisticated accommodation, health care, sports, dance, music, special skill development training in an atmosphere of love and care. Separate living area (Cots & mattress) were provided to the students. As students are using electronic Assistive devices (Laptops, Daisy Player, recorder) , there is no barrier for electricity. 24*7 medical facilities is provided in the campus. Regular medical camps are also being conducted. These children are taken care of till they become self-reliant. Students feel happy and comfortable as like as their own shelter.

Huge challenge is making their parents to accept them to allow their children to stay in residential school. Due to current society condition, parents are feared to let their children to residential school. By giving repeated counselling and positive words we are trying to bring the children to our centre. The next goal is to perform a campaign and to increase the beneficiaries' number and to support them with more features. Alternatively, we are planning to set up a training centre for the students. The training will help them develop interpersonal skills like teamwork. Positive approach, problem-handling, problem-solving etc.

Gopi, a visually challenged child aged 13 belongs to a lower-class family. His parents are daily wagers. Many times they returned empty-handed after their work. They do not have a permanent place to live in and they will accordingly be based on their job. Most of the time, Gopi was left alone as his parents went for jobs. They always wander in the streets and spent the whole time there. Through this project now he has received a good and safe shelter with basic amenities. He receives special education on our campus. His parents are happy about this.

Through this project, underprivileged, visually challenged children are receiving standard living facilities. Even though during the COVID period, this project supports the children with necessary personal safety supplies like masks, sanitizers, gloves, etc. Nearly 85 visually challenged children whose families are not able to provide a safe shelter are getting benefits. They are from locations in and around Madurai, Tamil Nadu. IAB students have access to a safe and secure environment, infrastructure, and housing 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Taking care of children in a COVID situation is really a great challenge because students with disabilities have a higher possibility of getting affected by COVID. By God's grace and the students' effort in following the necessary protocols, we have overcome the dire situation without any cases. The next goal is to perform a campaign and to increase the beneficiaries' number and to support them with more features. Alternatively, we are planning to set up a training centre for the students. The training will help them develop interpersonal skills like teamwork. Positive approach, problem-handling, problem-solving etc.

Muthumari is an active, visually challenged girl. She belonged to a lower middle class family. Her parents are daily wagors. Due to her disability and gender, her parents never let her go anywhere. Till the age of 5, she hadn’t gone to school. They lived in mud houses, which often fell off. They suffered a lot.  Muthumari’s parents came to the decision that Muthumari needed a safe place along with education. They tried several schools, but she was unable to adapt to those environments.As she was brought inside the closed community, she felt shy and feared the crowd. Then she was admitted to IAB’s residential school. As she saw many children in her category, she felt happy. As the days moved by, she became comfortable in IAB’s living area and started to come out of her shell. She played, laughed, etc. With the help of the caretaker’s counselling, she got knowledge on interpersonal skills, good and bad touch, etc. She is also average in her studies.

• Our Primary Focus is to uplift the visually challenged community and make them self reliant. The reality is children with disabilities are not treated as equals with normal children even by their parents. Their financial condition also coupled with a disability making the situation worse. IAB aims to provide better shelter for visually challenged children. Till today, Nearly 2500+ visually challenged children have a better life in a safer environment. The majority of them are from the southern Tamil Nadu region Due to COVID, we ensure the safety of the children. Frequent sanitation is emphasized. 50 visually challenged children were benefitted through this program. The safe, secure and sanitized environment provided with the utmost hygienic food. Regular health check-ups were arranged to ensure students health status. We have distributed a free Grocery kit to the children’s families during lockdowns for the past 1 year. By God’s Grace, we are happy to say that all our students are safe till today.

The ferocious waves of COVID throw many hurdles in every people’s life. Many children were lack of food, no safer environment. Initially, it is difficult to follow the necessary protocols like establishing a safe, hygienic and secure campus, social distancing, frequent handwash, wearing masks etc. Later we taught them about the necessity and severity of COVID. Also, we are in lack essential items like masks, sanitiser etc. Then by GIVEINDIA’s support, we can able to provide a COVID free environment and support the livelihood of their families etc.

Impact story from the ground:Hi, I am Rajesh, a Student of Grade XII. I am living in a safe and beautiful shelter named INDIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND SCHOOL. My parents are salespeople and we live in a very small house. Many times money lenders knocked on our house and warned us to settle their money else leave the house. I and my siblings always feared those incidents and lost our sleep. Now we are happy to have a good and peaceful sleep. During COVID, my family suffered a lot to meet our basic needs. We would face more trouble If not for your donation to our school Indian Association for the Blind – Sponsor Living Expenses for a visually challenged. During the dire situation of COVID, your support will be a lifesaver for many children like me.

Due to the impact of Corona virus, We are in the position to send our inmates to their hometown considering their safety. We have educated our beneficiaries about the virus & safety measures to safeguard themselves. Can you image the life of visually challenged child in this COVID situation. Even for the sighted people, its very difficult  to survive in this tough situation  we are pleased to report there have been no cases of the virus so far.
Online classes were taken to the students. Along with academic sessions, we have scheduled  activity sessions like creative learning, News updates, life saving  etc.. We are also extremely grateful to volunteers who are conducting online classes for our older children. We have actually been able to have some fun and introduce new activities thanks to more downtime!
We celebrated day celebrations like world Braille Day,(Remembering Louie Braille), National Youth Day (Birthday of Swami Vivekannda), International White cane Day', Republic Day by conducting Quiz competition, Essay & Speech Competition, Speaker’s note etc through online medium. 
On the eve of Pongal celebration, We have distributed grocery kit for underprivileged visually challenged families. Thank you so much for your support during these challenging times, all thanks to you that our children remained happy, healthy and educated.
Karthick- student of IAB studying in Grade. His words “I missed playing & joking with my friends”.I pray to god for normalcy of our World & soon school reopen.

Thanks for your support of accommodation

Your support helps more than 100+ visually challenged students lives in safe and sophisticated environment. we have set a RO plant for pure drinking water.
Team from Medical college has run a Medical camp in IAB. Normal check ups were done to students and staffs.They all happy on seeing the improvement of the students health. we have conducted awareness programs like sexual abuse, hygiene etc . To make the students healthy and relax, we are encouraging yoga,asanas into practice. It strength healthy a body ,soul and mind

Program Update

IAB provides sophisticated accommodation, health care, sports, dance, music, special skill development training in an atmosphere of love and care. Separate living area (Cots & mattress) were provided to the students. As part of education, Industrial visit are scheduled based on their standard. As students are using electronic Assistive devices (Laptops, Daisy Player, recorder) , there is no barrier for electricity. 24*7 medical facilities is provided in the campus. Regular medical camps are also being conducted. These children are taken care of till they become self-reliant. Students feel happy and comfortable as like as their own shelter.

Story from the field

Abandoned at ten by her own mother, Arun abitha’s life gets stumbled.
Arun abitha was 10 years old, when her mother passed away. She is a visually challenged child with a greater vision. He father is a daily labour and she has 2 siblings.
After her mother’s death, No one in her father come forward to take her including her father as she is a girl child and visually impaired. Due to her surroundings advice , her father ready to take care.
Initially she went to nearby normal school where she finds difficult in learning. Due to her family’s financial status , her father cannot able to afford more for her studies. By knowing about the service of IAB through their relatives, Arun abitha was enrolled in IAB.
Her studies, food and accommodation were taken care by IAB so that she would have a chance to make more of her life.. Initially she felt shy to mingle with her classmates and always felt homesick. Now She felt very happy to stay here and continue her studies.
Arun abitha was an intelligent girl. She scores high marks in her class. Not only in co-curricular, she also bagged with many prizes and certificates in shotput, volleyball tournaments. She has a dream of becoming a teacher and should serve for the people like her.

The last 6 months have been nothing short of eventful for students at IAB, thanks to all the celebrations.

Not one to be left behind in sports, two of our boys also represented the school in the Inter-State Cricket matches!

The children celebrated their favorite festival Diwali in October with great enthusiasm when they received sweets and firecrackers from a few thoughtful donors. The students visited AzhagarKoil on a day trip, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

October 15th was celebrated as the White Cane Safety Day at IAB. Many of our students participated in a rally from Racecourse to Tamukkam grounds in Madurai to raise awareness and sensitize public about the issues faced by the visually challenged in the country.

The celebrations this year was made extra special by Amway International when they gifted 10 tandem cycles to IAB.