Finding the Right Support

Twenty-three-year-old Pranali Daware was born with low vision in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Coming from a low income family, Pranali lost her father at an early age. Her mother supports the family through her income from a job in a private school.

Her parents tried to seek various medical interventions to reverse their daughter’s eyesight but at the age of five, due to optic nerve damage, she became totally blind. The family had no idea of how and where to educate a child with vision impairment. It was only some years later when they met a blind couple that they learnt about a special school in Dadar.

Pranali was sent to Kamala Mehta Special Residential school where she learned to read and write using Braille script. She also acquired mobility skills to navigate independently. After completing Class X and XII, she secured a BA degree from Mumbai University.

After graduation, she was desperate to find herself a job so she could support her mother financially. But she was clueless about job opportunities for persons with blindness. That’s when she contacted the Eyeway Helpdesk where the counsellor suggested her to gain some employability skills before applying for job roles.

Pranali needed to work on her computer, communication, interpersonal and other soft skills to become employable. So, the Eyeway counselor recommended that she enroll in Enable India’s job oriented foundational training program.

She readily agreed to move to Bangalore for pursuing the 9-month course where she would learn basic computer, spoken English, interview skills, personality development et cetera. While the program was free of cost, she was expected to arrange for her accommodation, food and so on. The Eyeway counselor helped Pranali find support through individual donors, and some of her relatives also pitched in.

She has successfully finished the training and she aspires to pursue jobs in the HR domain. As she hunts for a suitable job, the counselor also suggested her to upskill with advanced computer training etc. This will enhance her chances of finding a lucrative role in the private sector.