The last day of the month of March was celebrated as the Women’s Volunteering Day Out at my office. A delayed Women’s day celebration clubbed as a community activity at the National Association for the Blind (NAB) turned out to be a big success even with the low participation. The day started with the group getting introduced to the Organization, its activities and a talk on how to approach and behave with the visually challenged people. This was followed by a walk to the different parts of the Organization. It was amazing to see the courses these students beyond the age of twelve were offered. A workshop classroom where they were taught to use the various machines, how to recycle paper; a computer lab where some students smartly dressed in formals operating the MS Office and learning how to program with C and C++ with the help of a software that gives voice commands - all of these were a pleasant surprise. Very notable was the statement made by a student who showed us a demo of him operating on the computer. He said, ‘Whatever you do with the mouse, we do it with the keyboard with the help of this software. Infact we can do it faster than you.’ This astounding confidence from the student made us applaud whole heartedly. The sadness we felt at the start of the day whenever we passed by a blind student vanished with that confidence he portrayed. We began to enjoy with them and not just feel sad.
We were also shown how they read and write in Braille. The speed at which a blind boy wrote and read what his teacher dictated was stunning! We visited the Braille library and met a girl who is deaf and blind and saw how she was being taught to communicate with the sign language. We then had the lunch break where we served them and also ate with them. We conducted games like Passing the Parcel, Anthakshari. It was astonishing to see the numerous singers, dancers and actors present within themselves.
It was a lovely feeling to see the smiles and happiness on those students. They loved having us with them. We knew this was not the end. This was a visit that promised more such visits. One of the staff from NAB recited a very sweet poem addressing the people at our company. I would also like to quote what Mr. Sreenivas, CEO of NAB said- “Thank You Ladies for all the fun and the frolic we had today. It was a ‘REAL BREAK ‘for every one of us here at NAB from the routine chore. We appreciate your interest in our activities and would love to see some of you visiting us regularly over the weekends for volunteering your individual time and expertise for the benefit of the visually challenged students here”. The day ended with a group photo, the vote of thanks and most importantly, with content hearts.
“No impairment is an impairment.
Some of us are just made differently.”
