Regional Director’s Meet in London
Sense International (UK) organized a Regional
Directors Meet at the Fladgates law firm in London. On Friday 6th June
2014 directors from each country presented their work over the past year to Her
Royal Highness Princess Anne and Sense International supporters.
Sense India Director, Mr Akhil Paul, represented
India and was given the opportunity to present the following speech –
“When we started in 1997 there was 1
school supporting 23 deafblind children. Today we work in 21 states and
have reached 57,000 people. That’s a lot but it’s only 10% of the
estimated 500k deafblind people in the country. We still have more work to do.
Key to reaching all the deafblind people
in India is getting it recognised as a discrete disability by the national
government. Following the decision by the Government of India to repeal
the existing Persons with Disability Act, 1995, Sense International India has been invited to form part of the drafting
committee of the new disability law thus ensuring that deafblind people’s
rights are recognised.
Sense International India was invited by
the Department of Health and Child Welfare, government of Gujarat for
consultation on appropriate disability certification in the state of Gujarat.
It was an opportunity to create awareness about unique needs of persons with
deafblindness and making provision for appropriate certificates to fulfil those
needs.
Our advocacy officer, who is deafblind
himself, is one of only four non-government representatives invited to
participate from the floor of the high level panel of the Disabled People's
International and International Disability Alliance in Geneva.
India is vast and although we work on a
national level we also spend a lot of time working with state level government
bodies that have responsibility for so many essential services. Sense
International India has now trained teachers from 10 states on issues of
deafblindness, helping them to acquire the skills needed to work with deafblind
children.
For example, in Gujarat we are working
with the State government helping them to develop “Inclusion Index”- which will
be helpful to school administrators to evaluate whether they are ready to deliver
inclusive education respecting all the needs of children with various
disabilities.
For
deafblind children in India education is key to breaking the cycle of poverty.
For example Hansa was identified by the fieldworker when she was 8 years old in
a village. Hansa’s father was a mason but due to heart condition he was unable
to take on enough work to sustain the family. Hansa being deafblind, needed her
mother’s care all day long which prevented the mother from taking a regular
job. Sense India’s work with Hansa began with training in basic communication
and daily living skills and within a year Hansa became independent in most of
the personal hygiene and grooming skills, which freed up her mother to take
daily farm-jobs.
Hansa’s
family comes from an area which produces cotton and cotton seeds need to be
removed manually before sending the cotton to the gin. The fieldworker trained
Hansa to remove cotton seeds and thus she became a contributing member of the
family. But Hansa did not stop here, she expressed the desire to open a petty
shop in her village so Sense India arranged for her to be trained in functional
skills of currency identification, counting, measuring etc. I feel proud to say
that today she is one of 21 deafblind adults who are contributing to family
income.”
Sense India Family is proud of their Director’s vision and leadership. He is a dedicated mentor to each member of the team. We thank him for being such an amazing person.
Thanks Akhil!
You can also join us in wishing Akhil on his achievements. Comment below.Show your support to our endeavors by sharing on facebook/discoversense
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