Antardrishti Forum for Friends of Blind |
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Looking at the current situation of visually challenged people (Blind People) we notice that even after 61 years of independence, we have failed to integrate them in the mainstream society. More than 4 million Visually Challenged people live in urban areas. Rarely we do see them walking on the streets or participating in some meaningful social activities; excluding the students of specialized schools for the Blind. Do you often see visually challenged person in the schools, colleges, banks, post offices or have seen them using public facilities. What is the reason that these people are not seen despite living in urban centres? It looks like as if someone has cut them off from the mainstream. Even today they are looked upon with pity or even abhorrence. Lack of access to information and resources is one of the reasons why a large section of visually challenged people are not deriving any benefits from government or non-government schemes and programmes. Despite their indefatigable efforts, the programmes for integrating them in the mainstream have not found much success. However, it is because of these efforts that of late some change has been observed in the overall situation. So far, Visually Challenged People have been seen as a powerless category, fit only for pity and charity. But the fact is that the aspirations of visually challenged have not been properly understood either by the society or by the government. Society showered pity on them and government confined them to some kind of vocation only. But we at Antardrishti do not look at them as 'powerless poor' or with the view point of negligence. Like other ailment, blindness is also a disease which should not be neglected, pitied or ashamed; rather we should instil feelings of equality and co-operation in them. Antardrishti believes that the awareness level of the society about blind’s and blindness must be raised. They can be brought into the mainstream of society only by providing them with equal opportunities, helping them acquire skills and by linking them in the production process. Along with, it is also necessary that the mainstream society should not only accept their presence but also treat them with dignity and equality. After a thorough analysis of our experiences of last six years, we felt the need of a platform where visually challenged persons, along with their family members, friends and people from different backgrounds can come together to exchange ideas, opinions and experiences; so that they can be enabled not only to cooperate and solve the problem of VCPs but also facilitate their integration in the mainstream of society. The 'forum' will try to establish communication through meetings, discussion, seminars, workshops etc. Objective The objective of the forum is to:
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Antardrishti Forum for Friends of BlindRecently a meeting was held at Goverdhan Hotel on 7 February 2010 to discuss the problems of visually impaired people, wherein it was unanimously decided to establish a forum designated as 'Antardrishti Forum for Friends of Blind' which shall address problem of the visually impaired and their seamless integration with the mainstream society.We welcome your views and suggestions on the same. The forum is being formally launched on 21st February 2010 at Youth Hostel, Sanjay Place, Agra. Concept note of the forum is available for your perusal in Hindi and English.
Eye CareThe much awaited awareness manual for school teachers on children's eye care is now available in Hindi language and very soon we will be bringing out the English Manual as well. In this manual, we have incorporated the views and suggestion of teachers, ophthalmologist and instructors. We hope that this manual would serve the purpose of a useful training aid towards prevention of blindness amongst children. If you, or anyone known to you, work with school (junior section) as a teacher/ principal/ manager or in any capacity and is willing to use this manual, please fill the form to obtain a copy of the manual. Click on the Link
Together we can bring a change in the life of Sunayana, a visually impaired............Currently we are collecting information about visually impaired people in India to understand their situation in a comprehensive manner. This will help us to articulate and share plan and programs for their development.If you know any visually impaired person and wish to support, kindly download the form and pass it on to him or her. If you find this cumbersome kindly fill the form on their behalf and send the detail by email at sunayana@antardrishti.org or by post to Antardrishti office. The form is available at http://antardrishti.org/download.php?view.10. We would also like to request you to forward this message to everyone in your contact list. This way we can reach to a lot more of them. Theatre for Personality DevelopmentWe all know that theatre can play a big role in creating awareness and bringing social change. With this understanding we organized a theatre workshop for the visually impaired children not only to create awareness but also to provide them a tool for their own personality development. This was our first effort; there were barriers all around, but the kids were full of enthusiasm and vigour. They all did some hard work and came out with flying colours. We are planning to organize some more workshops with the visually impaired children and look forward to your comments and feedback sunayana@antardrishti.org. Join us to be part of such a process to bring change in the life of Sunayana; not one but many around us………. | 
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