Little drops of water make a mighty ocean - Sensitization, awareness building and some fund raising...
On Sunday, June 10th, a team from Mitra Jyothi spent their morning with the residents of Mantra Espana. The nine member team, including two of our ILS trainees equipped with awareness posters, accessible devices and umpteen Mitra Jyothi merchandise made by our trainees visited Mantri Espana, an apartment complex in close-by Bellandur area of Bangalore. Ms. Sandhya from Mantri Espana had been diligently working with us and arranged the event. She had created a good lot of awareness among the residents even before the event. Messages over whatsapp and email were circulated among residents. Her son Manas developed a short ppt about blindness and visual impaired people and their abilities. Through out the event he played vides about Mitra Jyothi for the many visitors as they came in. We conducted "Blind fold walks" as part of the sensitization and awareness building exercise. People of all age groups participated, a child who was just about 5 years was our youngest participant. Our trainees and staff guided all participants. It was very impressive to watch our trainees guiding the participants. Residents poured in throughout the time we were there and we very quickly sold out all the art and craft merchandise made by our trainees. We explained to them how assistive devices work and help people with vision impairment lead normal and independent lives.
We were very humbled by the hospitality extended by Ms. Sandhya. She had arranged for snacks and coffee during the event followed by a lunch in a nearby restaurant for all of us.
There were lot of demand for our merchandise, especially our reusable wire baskets. Many of the residents have placed orders as we ran out of stock. In addition, many of the residents at Mantri Espana made donations to support our programs. Many of them plan to visit Mitra Jyothi soon.
It was a very memorable morning for all of us. We are quite sure that we have made a long lasting impact in the minds of the residents of Mantri Espana about vision impairment, our enablement programs and providing equal opportunities to people with disabilities! Many thanks to Ms. Sandhya and Manas from all of us at Mitra Jyothi!
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