GiftAbled turned 3 in December 2016. Time just flies. We started with the aim of spreading disability awareness through fun filled workshops and trainings, and supporting livelihood of People with Disability through our ecommerce store. But during this journey while we were busy exploring Livelihood and visiting various parts of our country, we realised it was not just improving livelihood of PwD but far much more than that. We ended up exploring so many basic but extremely important projects. I don’t want my appeal page to be filled with achievements of past but would want you to read why these few basic projects are needed. If you feel connected with what I am writing, please feel free to donate or spread awareness. At least I would be happy that I was able to spread a little awareness on few things that get ignored unknowingly.
Various crimes against the deaf go unreported due to barriers in communication. Even if the victim has pictorial details of the attacker, they may be unable to share it with the authorities, in absence of sign language interpreters. Similarly, many other government agencies such as the passport office, RTO etc., lack the interpreter facilities without which communication of government officials with the deaf is limited, or even impossible. In many foreign countries, specialists are mandated to hire an interpreter in order to communicate with a hearing impaired whereas in India, there are no such rules, leaving most of the officials ignorant. “The water had burst, and I was due. I had to reach hospital in 30 minutes or less, but I didn’t know this, then.” “I had never been to hospital neither was I ever briefed on what to be done and not to.” says Sushama (fictional name), a Hearing Impaired (HI) who lost her baby as she couldn’t reach hospital on time, tears rolling down her face. Women with disability especially hearing impaired and visually impaired have very limited knowledge on “Menstrual and Maternal Health”. GiftAbled came across two case studies of mothers, where one still had born baby and the other lost her child after few days of delivery because of the lack in knowledge of Maternal health. There is a large gap in the Hearing-impaired community as they are not able to grasp the scientific jargon used in the books and also there are no possible explanations on the same with Indian Sign Language. When it comes to Visual Impairment they would need a touch and feel interface to understand a little about human body. That would be possible only through tactile and models with a Braille endorsed books. Why can’t we have bunch of Doctors take the initiative and spread awareness. We did try this with our gynac supporter Dr. Shaibya Saldanha and have seen tremendous impact in Bangalore and rural parts of Karnataka. Why can’t we create modules which would speak about different aspects of Menstrual and maternal health, Hearing Impaired and other disabilities – Video Modules with an interpretation and subtitles.
For visually impaired children and adults, a lot of the world remains out of reach. For children, story books in braille aren’t as dynamic and diverse as books for sighted children. For adults, while voice software and other means have made it possible for them to use many electronic gadgets, several functions may not be understood very clearly. We must introduce visually impaired children and adults to stories and everyday objects by way of tactile story books and charts which are dynamic in nature, giving them a thorough understanding of things that sighted people often take for granted such as computers, phones, train stations etc.
When we visited NGO’s dealing with disability issues in rural parts of Karnataka we came across many NGOs that were not even having access to basic facilities. Can’t we take up small assignments and adopt these organisations and empower them to do more… What say? I just know we have so many challenges ahead in space of disability. But with your support and your invested time and resources, I am sure this would be possible. I appeal to you all to come forward and support by empathizing the cause and not out of any sympathy (no aiyooo papa plsss) … Link to contribute is – http://www.icfn.in/tcsworld10k/fundraiser/giftabledprarthana/
We would be happy if you could support and spread awareness about this initiative to your network.
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“Please don’t forget to pass this on to someone who you feel can change lives”
It’s not just Money… Know how “You”, the Donor or Volunteer has made an Impact, changed lives for the better… Pls follow us on FB too! https://www.facebook.com/GiftabledCreatingInspiringTransforming
Warm & best regards,
Prarthana Prateek Kaul
Founder – GiftAbled