Lead The Rest Through Read Fest!

As the doors opened for the Read Fest to be held at School of Inspired Leadership, we could see a plethora of eager volunteers gearing up for the same!
As the flurry picked pace, the excitement grew paramount with participants enquiring for the same, curiosity & inquisitiveness pretty evident from their expressions!

"So.. What's This About? Can You Brief Us?" 

                                                                                      - Anudeep, Student SOIL

The Esha Volunteers left no stone unturned be it through providing information to students or motivating them to record.

Needless to say, the students were very excited & eager to help.
Help implied they had to miss classes & record audio content for Esha..

"We want to help! But we have classes till 6:15! How to go about it?"

                                                                                                - Analytics Student, SOIL

It seemed like an uphill task to convince them to stay back after classes.
The time had come to enlighten the students on how just 10-20 minutes of their time could help a Blind person in understanding & interpreting the world he lives in, in a better way.

The Esha Volunteers did succeed in getting recordings in languages ranging from Tamil to Bengali.
The mission resonated well with the students & they could well understand the impact this was creating on the society they live in..

" Yes, it did take time. Yet, I feel like I've done something of greater value today!" 

                                                                                                   - Marketing Student, SOIL

The Impact could be felt in the conviction & tenacity the Participants showed despite the fact that there were multiple takes at recording owing to technical glitches & noise disturbances.

" We thank you with all our heart & soul. You guys have done a great job!"

                                                                                            - Shivangi Sharma, Volunteer Esha

 

                     In Picture: Two Students supporting Esha in Audio Recordings in Bengali & Oriya at Read Fest

The Experience was enriching & provided lots of learning to both SOIL Students as also Esha Volunteers.

The Impact could be felt, somewhere in between the softened mumbles of students & the sighs of the Volunteers....

Blind Walk At Government Schools

The experience was nothing short of amazing when the sensitization was carried forward through government schools & awareness was spread starting right at the grass-root level!

" Are there schools for the Blind? How do they study? " quipped Neha, a 10 year old as she completed her Trust Walk exercise...

As the curiosity levels soared & youngsters got not only more aware regarding blindness, but also traces of concern & inquisitiveness could well be seen bubbling in the innocent yet curious eyes of the budding change makers..

" I feel amazing after interacting with these young minds.. I've talked to them about blindness before on  multiple counts as my sister is also going through the same " 

-Teacher (Saksham Bal Vikas Sansthan)

It's wondrous how deeply can we impact the lives of these children by making them aware about the blind, sensitizing them so that they develop not only the strength to help & support them but also take inspiration from their tenacity & determination with which they lead their lives..

" So how do they eat? ", asked Arjun, his face gleaming with curiosity 

We sensitized them not only about the Blind & how their strength gets them going but also about Braille & how they study!

" Can I learn Braille too? ", quipped curious Sambhav as he looked intently at his teacher

The positive vibes could very well be felt as the drone of noises that schools are known by could be channelled into positive dialogue with the impact very well received by the students.

SOIL Esha team wins the best outgoing SIP Team - 2016! Celebration Time!!

It is our pleasure and privilege to share that our Social Innovation Program team from #SOIL - School of Inspired Leadership, has won the Best Outgoing SIP Team this year. This is an honour well deserved by the team - that worked really hard all through the year on everything that Esha does, and then some more - Blind Walk, Social Media Management, Tour De Vision, doing Braille cards, and other projects.

Please join us in congratulating Rethina Kumar, Vigneshwar Ganesan, Cauvery Jalan and Saranya Balasubramanian - for being the rock stars that they have been! Thank you Atindra Nath Bhattacharya sir and the entire SOIL team for your encouragement. And of course, Randonneur Rajesh Dhuddu for his awesome mentoring.

To celebrate their journey with Esha, they have created a special video covering everything that they did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaYggRDCD8M

And to hear their experience , we recommend that you head to Esha's Youtube channel, where videos of their feedback, and of the previous batch, are uploaded:

https://www.youtube.com/user/eshabraille/videos

Guest Post by Toshit Chouhan, Student, B.A., L.Lb (Honours)

Toshit has worked on the CLABIL outreach program for 20 days in February, taking the content where it is most needed - directly to our intended beneficiaries -without the need to depend on the govt, or a program. We have decided to take the content and take the direct feedback of our beneficiaries, and to use that feedback to create a more useful resource - in design, content and distribution.

अक्सर जब मैं अपनी जिन्द्दगी में खुशियाँ देखता हूँ
मुझे मेरी अम्मी जान का चेहरा नज़र आ जाता है
मेरा दिल भर आता है, एक ख्याल हमेशा मुझे सताता है
ना जाने कब मैं अपने पैरों पर खड़ा होकर , तेरे कुछ काम आ पाऊंगा माँ
ना जाने कब , जो कुछः तूने और धरती माँ ने मेरी थाली में परोसा है ,
उसको सूद समेत लौटा पाऊंगा माँ

ना जाने कब, इस देश के कुछ काम आ पाऊंगा मा

I was overwhelmed with my comfortable life and getting treated with +A grade education, a thought always killed me from inside that a huge population of our country  still has no access to education. And just as my poetry explains I decided to step out of my comfort zone and planned to take my after semester internship with an NGO so that I can start my journey of serving the nation. I always wanted to be in Delhii as it is a home to our constituency. Here, in the selection process of choosing an NGO to start my work,  I was highly inspired by my cousin brother Gaurav bhaiya, who has always kept himself involved in community services and continues to do so. He had read about Esha and recommended me for the same. I got through the screening and the interview process and was invited by Nidhi  mam onboard,  who gave me the golden opportunity to work with ESHA.

Which I will confess, working with ESHA for 20 days has brought a huge change in my life.

I got to meet mrs, Geeta who narrated her story, And how she battled with the domestice violence she faced at home and took a decision to leave her house for the welfare of her new born daughter.

I also met Mr. Nath who lived in an old age home, he narrated  the untold story of how an old age home in reality works and many a problems that go unheard and unnoticed by the people.

 Being a law student, it was very important for me to know where my country lacks legal awareness, so that I can take an initiative to spread the same. While I was working for ESHA I felt very proud when I saw the students from the poor  and the underprivileged sections waited for my ESHA story telling classes. They welcomed me with a huge smile, and my send off was always a standing ovation.  The field work taught me the struggle, I got the chance  to meet 1000+ people in my 20 days work, 1000+ strangers who taught me a lesson that one should always take some step to start sharing one’s  fortune to make the lesser fortunate people in the society a chance to be happy, to be able to bring stability in the society. And I feel happy that I was able to make an effort to educate 1000+ people through ESHA library. For this I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Nidhi mam who gave me an opportunity to be a part of ESHA family.

Band ankhoo se sapne dekhna sekh liya hai.. Sapne purey kerne k liye mahnet kerna sekh liya hai.