BENGALURU: Here is an organisation that provides for opportunities to the deserving, young, and talented children. However, they come with disabilities of any form or from marginalized economic backgrounds. Deepanjali Trust for the Disabled was established in 2012 by three highly motivated graduates who were all visually impaired but had a strong desire to help people with disabilities and help them explore the life opportunities for which they themselves had to fight so hard to get.
The goal of the Trust is to provide for accommodation, education, training and assistance with personal development to both the visually impaired and physically challenged. In recent years, the organization has grown and now seeks to extend its activities to shelter not only those with a physical disability but also children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Subbaraydu K, founder of Deepanjali Trust for the Disabled, says, “Being visually challenged, I know the problems of my brethren better than anyone else. Since childhood, I had the desire to help people with disabilities and empower them to embrace opportunities, which they would have to fight for otherwise. So this trust is to empower visually impaired, disabled and underprivileged people through developmental initiatives focusing on educational, social, economic, cultural and technological aspects.”
Deepanjali Trust for the Disabled works with a challenge to help economically backward visually challenged students to complete their education by providing them with free hostel facilities in the city of Bengaluru. The hostel is located in the heart of the city which helps the students in using public transportation and also look after their safety in their daily commute. The hostel provides basic infrastructure to all its inmates. With the help of volunteers, the trust provides coaching classes and guidance for the courses taken up by the visually challenged students. The Trust also provides counselling for mentally disturbed students and to bring back focus in their lives.
“With proper guidance and education, we feel the visually challenged students would be able to mould their future and have a better standard of living. Providing voluntary services like reading and teaching to students and coaching them on special subjects like communication courses give them better exposure to the outside world. So,ultimately our trust believes that persons with disability can live with self-respect and dignity.”
The Trust also launched a paper collection drive as part of this recycle mission. The mission is to collect newspapers, shredded paper, cartons, A4 size sheets, old magazines, used books (text and notebooks), plastic materials and other inorganic products. These are given to recycling units and proceeds from them are utilized to fund its activities.
Deepanjali Trust plans to expand this programme and generate employment for the disabled. Now, the Trust wants to operate this programme across companies and apartments in Bengaluru to generate notebooks on a monthly basis and provide employment to many disabled people.
