Rejuvenated by ambition

Kanika Gupta (name changed), a resident of Ghaziabad is 23 years old. She lost her vision due to Brain Tuberculosis in 2012. The subsequent medication also resulted in her developing locomotor disabilities, leaving her both visually and physically challenged. Thus, she couldn’t leave her house for a prolonged period of five years. But brave Kanika still had her ambitions entrenched, hardly affected by anything that was disabling her body. She kept dreaming about gaining higher education and securing a job. On one of her casual visits to Saksham Trust, Delhi about which she got to know from her sister in Mumbai she met with an Eyeway counselor who directed her to the Eyeway center at Score Foundation. She then visited Score Foundation with her parents who are lecturers by qualification but have changed their profession to take care of their daughter. Her father now has a sales job and her mother has turned housewife to be at an arm’s reach to their dear daughter. Kanika had finished her schooling five years back and now with immense support from her parents, she was thinking a “new beginning” in her life.

Understanding her enthusiasm and her parents’ faith in her potential Eyeway counselors took the best steps forward to encourage and inspire her. Eyeway placed hope and confidence in her mind and encouraged her to pursue graduation through correspondence from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in a subject of her liking. Counselors suggested to her career options like lectureship, starting a coaching center after any English courses from British Council, or start soft skill training as her communication skills were impressive.
Two of the counselors shared their own life experiences of having surmounted their disabilities with courage. This made a profound difference in her interaction for the remaining part of the meeting.

To learn and understand many similar lives of those who defeated any type of disability imposed by the world the counselors suggested watching Eyeway’s TV series ‘Nazar Ya Nazariya’. Also, the counselors made them aware of NVDA and JAWS software and talk back technology for Android phones that would help her normalize her life. The eyeway team emphasized on the need for Kanika to exert herself in physical exercises so she could gain back her locomotor abilities. Eyeway managed to send Kanika and her family back with great joy, optimism, and aspirations.

On a follow-up call, Eyeway learned that Kanika had enrolled for B.A Honors in English from IGNOU. She had also joined a computer training program in National Association for the Blind (NAB), Delhi but discontinued due to her locomotor problems. Our counselors then connected her with Ravinder Gupta, a home-based computer trainer so Kanika could easily pursue her training at home.