Guiding back to a hopeful future

24 year old Pawan Sharma struggled growing up in a poor family as a visually impaired child. He was put in a mainstream school but given his degenerative eye condition, he had to grapple with challenges in a classroom full of sighted students as well as visual teaching methods. His education, mobility, accessibility, etc. were all reliant on his spared vision at the end of each year. Ultimately, while pursuing his higher secondary education he lost his complete vision and having no awareness about life with disability, he had to drop out of school.

Since then he had been sitting idle at home, ignorant of any possibilities of living life with blindness. His family was also of no help as they were equally unaware. Lack of education confined Pawan to the four walls of his house.

It was a casual internet browsing that led him to find Eyeway. He wasted no time in contacting the Helpdesk where he shared his problems. On comprehending his issue and his absolute ignorance on living life with disability, the counselor suggested a rehabilitation program for him to start with. Pawan was only keen to know about employment opportunities available to him. However, the counselor informed him that employment options in his case were limited given his existing educational qualifications. To gain proper employment, he not only needed educational qualification but also required to undergo appropriate training for rehabilitation. For this purpose, he was asked to join Arushi India in Madhya Pradesh, an NGO that provides education, rehabilitation, awareness, skills training etc. to persons with disabilities.

Pawan expressed his desire to pursue his education in a mainstream institution but the counselor told him that his age was a barrier to enrol in a regular school. He was suggested to choose between a special school, private school or open schooling. Heeding the counselor’s suggestion, Pawan decided to pursue to enrol in Madhya Pradesh private board to complete his Class XII.  He was also informed about government schemes he could avail to purchase assistive devices for his education. The counselor also suggested resources like Cheema Trust Foundation, Chandigarh and NAB Delhi to get accessible study material.