Mohammed Vohra - SOIL 2018 Batch - Experience with Esha

"I lack Sight, but not Vision” is driving motivation for us to work for the noble cause.

We, School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) volunteers, got an opportunity to organize Tour De Vision (TDV) 4.0 cycling event in Gurgaon independently. I was fortunate to handle a team of 4 members under the guidance of TDV director, Rajesh Dhuddu, and founder of ESHA, Nidhi Arora. The objective was to sensitize people about the accessibility of public spaces for everyone – including differently abled.

Initially, we finalized date and venue for organizing our event. Prepared Project Charter, and Gantt chart which describes complete details of the event, task, and milestones to be accomplished. A great amount of time was invested in coordinating with our alums in gathering information about participants, corporate sponsors, promotion, snacks arrangement, balanced the budget, submission of all expenses receipts, payment to vendors. Brainstorming session helped us in setting our agenda and tasks to be accomplished on an individual basis.

Networking with the corporates and other organizations facilitated us in raising funds for our event. Multiple cold calls, and email communication helped us in reaching corporate sponsors in large scale. It was followed by scheduling meeting and pitching them to be part of this event. Conducted roadshows, advertising, digital marketing, and promotion in the corporate world for spreading our message among the public. Managing key stakeholders and fulfilling their requests was a challenging task which helped us in gaining client management skills. We ensured that expenses are minimal by identifying multiple vendors and buying products at cheapest prices.

We were fortunate to learn braille machine and printed 150 ‘Thank You!!!’ in braille. It was heart touching to see blind students from Janta Blind School crafting beautiful drawings on the gifts cards, to be given to the participants.

I was fortunate to do flag off for our event. We kept a checklist of all participants before and after the event to ensure that all are present at the venue. Blind walk and NAB (National Association of Blind) performance was followed by cycling event to sensitize how blind people function in the society.

Special thanks to all SOIL Volunteers, who helped us on the day of the event and making it successful. All credit goes to Rajesh Sir and Nidhi Ma’am for giving this wonderful opportunity to work for the social cause.