Empowered LCD South Asia's News Letter, January 2010 - June 2010, Volume 6, No. 1
Dear Friends,
Once again I take immense pleasure in welcoming you to our first bi annual news letter for the year 2010 – 11. We owe our success to your consistent support and thank you for the same. As usual we take the opportunity to share with you our work and experiences in South Asia and hope it will be useful for all. Through this issue we intend to emphasise the importance of Economic Empowerment of disabled people and our working experience towards achieving the same. Under best practice we share our experience of organising an exclusive job fair for disabled people. We bring you story from Pakistan where innovative mechanisms and technology are used to impart skill training. We share a new case study from Mangalore where skill training has brought positive change in the life of Malini. Our guest speaker shares the corporate experience of appointing disabled people.
The inspiring photo story of Babulal, continuing story of Esaruddin show how consistent support can bring about life changing experience in the lives of disabled people. As part of management inputs we share some tips on fund raising - the backbone for any NGO’s sustenance. We hope you find it useful.
Year 2010 has great significance for our office as it marks completion of ten years of existence in the region. Established in the year 2000 we have covered a lot of ground in reaching out to disabled people. From 27 homes to 23 medium and large outreach programs and reaching out to more than 20,000 disabled people we have come a long way. By no means have we reached our destination yet. I am reminded of the last lines from Robert Frost’s famous poem Stopping by the Woods “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, Miles to go before I sleep, Miles to go before I sleep”. We still have a long way to go!
We wish you happy reading and look forward for your inputs and valuable suggestions to build our magazine from good to great!
Warm regards,
Rajendra K R
Best Practice - Job Fair with a difference
Ramu beams as he looks on at the CCTV monitor responsibly. His job is to keep a watch on the security in ITC Royal Gardenia where he is employed in the CCTV monitoring room. He says “Now people respect me, as I am an earning member of my family." Ramu is a young adult with polio in his lower limbs with spasticity. Couple of months ago he was depressed and dejected till he underwent hospitality training organized by Livelihood Resource Centre, Bangalore.
On 10th October 2009 Livelihood Resource Center Bangalore along with Enable India and Action for People with Disabilities (APD) jointly hosted this Job Fair exclusively for disabled people. Job or career fairs are fairly common events organized to provide common platform for employers and job seekers to meet and match roles and abilities. This particular event was different because the employers were mainstream organizations offering very main stream jobs which are offered to any non disabled person. Only, these jobs were being offered to disabled people exclusively. This was the 2nd job fair of its kind organized by the three organisations in Bangalore.
Employment of persons with disabilities at MphasiS was not incidental but a very conscious decision driven by the senior leadership. The main driving factor was the belief that talent/competency exists in all populations. Being an equal opportunity employer that respects diversity, MphasiS believes that qualified individuals with disabilities not only add to our diverse workforce but also have a positive impact on our bottom line.
23 year old Babulal has been walking on his hands all his life. As a child he suffered from Post polio residual paralysis due to which the lower half of his body was paralysed. His legs were badly bent so he had to use his hands to push his body on the floor. Babulal and his family had given up all hopes of any improvement in his mobility. They felt there was no hope for him and he cannot be treated. It was a big challenge for the staff of Arushi – Leonard Cheshire Disability Samawesh Project to convince him and his family members that a corrective surgery will help Babulal move better. After several counseling sessions they finally agreed for corrective surgery at Narayana Seva Samsthan (NSS) Udaipur.
Kilputhupattu is a small village in Tamil Nadu not far away from Chennai on the way to Pondicherry. Chennai Cheshire Service expanded its services to this village as part of the community outreach program. In 2007 the disabled people in this village were made aware of their rights and entitlements through an awareness programme which was organised by the staff of Cheshire Service to explain the concept of Self Help Group and objectives of the same to address the issues related disabled people locally on their own. Information regarding disability and rights was shared with all the participants. 15 disabled people out of 30 participants showed willingness to be part of a Group. Thus Annai Indira Disabled Sangam came into existence. Marimuthu is the president of the sangam and Jayasankar is the secretary.
Activities and Events - Leonard Cheshire Disability - South Asia Regional Office (SARO)
Given below is a summary of activities and events that have occurred during this period -
Mainstreaming Disability Progamme: SARO supported Dark and Light and REK to organise a workshop on Mainstreaming Disability for their partners in southern India between the 20th and 22nd January 2010. SARO acted as local resource for the organisations to conduct organisational assessment and mapping exercise and to provide inputs on how to mainstream disability into the existing programmes of the organisations. The objective of the workshop was to equip the participants with appropriate knowledge, ideas and attitudes to initiate the mainstreaming process in their respective organisations in a systematic and planned manner. This workshop was organised at Manipal county in Bangalore and was attended by more than fifteen participants from different organisations across southern India.
Life keeps on changing with the passage of time. Sometimes dependency of disabled people can be brought down so much that there is hardly any difference left between the disabled and the non disabled. Cyber world has shown new horizons to disabled people. Broadband connections, handheld devices with accessible software, cell phones and computers have introduced new horizons to disabled people and today there is a completely new group of disabled people in Pakistan called the techno group. This group is very well versed with the software and developments in assistive technology.
To demonstrate interventions taken up by South Asia Regional Office and the impact of our work we are regularly tracking the case story of “Esar Uddin and his family”. This family has been recently identified as clients by a SARO supported programme.
LCD-SARO has partnered with Centre for Disability in Development (CDD), a disability organisation in Bangladesh, to implement a programme on Inclusive Education and Employment Rights of Persons with Disabilities. CDD has chosen local partners to support them in implementation of this programme; one among them is Gono Unnayan Sangstha (GUK), a community development organisation working in remote, backward and disaster prone areas of Gaibandha district.
“Fundraising is a science. But its rules are more like a rainbow than a formula. You need to paint with the most delicate shades of colours and moods. You will surely become a success if you paint with love and friendship” Ekaterina Ki
Fundraising is the life blood of any nonprofit organisation. But, where do you start? New fundraising techniques and methods come into existence every year, but the basic ones should be the backbone of your fundraising efforts. These are, literally, your "bread and butter."
Poverty and disability are very close cousins. They usually go hand in hand and co-exist with great solidarity. Both act as cause and effect interchangeably. Malini is a typical example of this vicious cycle. She was one and a half years old when she became a victim to polio. She was born in a poor family in a small village in Mangalore. Her father chronically ill and mother suffered from depression having had to take care of the entire family single handedly. Malini never received any treatment or therapy due to poverty. As a result her lower limbs were badly affected. She found it difficult to move around. So she discontinued her education after 3rd standard.
“Dear all,
This is the saddest Email that we have ever had to draft......” this is how the message began that conveyed the unbelievable news of Venu's demise. There are quite a few things that are taken for granted in life. Things that we believe will never get over. Things that will always be there like air, water, food, money etc. Venu was one such entity at SARO that we never believed will be exhausted. His untiring presence for all occasions and events without a worry about time, his dogged efforts to complete given task however tough or easy it might be, his wizardry with government machineries and special abilities to get anything and everything done by the government officials, his unwavering commitment to the disability field are some of the qualities that would remain unforgettable for a very long time!
Venu is remembered by many as a mentor and a teacher, as a man with genuine warmth, love and concern for others, as a wonderful human being who used to care for others more than himself, as a great administrator... the list goes on. But there were two most striking features about him which are very unique in themselves. One was his puritan approach to vegetarianism. He would go without food for days and try and survive on mere fruits and raw vegetables to ensure he followed the chosen path in letter and spirit. Second characteristic is what makes him very unique. His ability to be helpful in all circumstances be it a simple job in the office or an international event; be it a government order for the project or a similar document for personal use; Venu never used to miss a cue. Even before someone would mention he would be there to help. This helpful nature of his endeared him to one and all. His life was helpful in establishing a number of project offices, systems, procedures etc. Even in his death Venu proved to be helpful. He donated his eyes so someone without vision could see the world with his eyes! Venu is called a “great man with human heart”. It is so true. He was fantastic and in so many ways, irreplaceable. We at SARO will miss him sorely.
"As a Trustee of World Jewish Relief it is a privileged to be able to visit the office of our trusted partner in delivering the project to help those still affected by the Tsunami. Thank you for the warmth of the welcome."
- 19 - Feb - 2010 | Peter and Marion Reichwald, London
"Am touched! I would certainly like to work with the organisation at my personal capacity, and would pursue my organisation too to have a long term partnership with it. Wish all the very best!"
- 30 - Jun - 2010 | Sudhir R Sinha, Arcelor Mittal, India