The first 7 months of our existence have been very eventful.
In all 11 events we have conducted across Kerala and Karnataka in the areas of sports and education through reflective and introspective workshops, need analysis in blind schools, Swimming camps, Conversational English classes, initiating research programs and so on, covering 500 plus children and young adults in the age group of 6 to 18 years.
EquiBeing started partnering with blind schools and blind institutions to conduct various programs. The first in this series was Equifloat. Swimming camps spanning 10 days were conducted in various cities of Kerala and Karnataka, taking aboard children with visual impairment and their caregivers. The speed at which these children took to the water and mastered skills like backstroke and diving amazed both the coaches and the caregivers. This gave EquiBeing the much needed confidence in their convictions.
We did a pilot run of Equispeak, a program for promoting conversational English with children from blind schools. A Need Analysis to understand the academic and infrastructural gaps were conducted in government blind schools, Karnataka. Psycho social research work with Christ University has also been initiated. A series of talks titled ‘Handling your Mud Moment’ were conducted with blind children across India through the virtual mode and the response and interactions were overwhelming. EquiJoy, a program to spread cheer and well- being among children who are eye cancer survivors was also done in collaboration with a leading eye hospital in Karnataka. This workshop also had a special session for the caregivers to give them a sense of the possibilities of achievement their children could aspire for.
Taking this a step further, we started collaborating with inclusive mainstream schools to conduct sports. Blind football was held with both normal and blind children playing together. These programs created a great deal of sensitivity in the normal children, which is essential to our goal of a conducive community for creating blind achievers.
Our biggest achievement so far has been establishing 7 partnerships across private, public and Government welfare departments leading into multi-year engagements in different stages of initiation.
