A visit to Blind People's Association and Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad

"They may be blind from their eyes, but actually their vision for life is far more clear than mine..." Similar thoughts blew my mind when I visited the Blind People's Association, Ahmedabad on July 17, 2008 as a part of my FDP at IIMA. When we were informed that we'd be taken to Blind People's Association, we thought it would be just waste of time! It'd be yet another NGO that would show us some of their work, and would demand some donation from us. But, fortunately, we were wrong. Instead, it proved to be a thought provoking, astonishing and unforgattable visit for all of us. Here's why:

When we landed at BPA around 11 AM, their officials brought us to the conference hall. It was a good conference hall, well carpeted, fully Air Conditioned and ambience was also quite wonderful. A small introduction was provided initially and then we were made to play a game. It was very simple. They tied a black cloth on the eyes of each of us except five people, who were provided with spectacles from which they would "just" able to see unclear dusty picture. They were specially designed glasses. We were told to find the door and take a small round of the ground outside. But, it was so difficult! I mean, I was, just 25 feet away from the door when I was sitting, and yet it took me almost five minutes to find the door! Some of us went to some wrong offices around and some went on the first floor! The five guides did a reasonable job in drawing us to our final destination-the conference hall.

The exercise in itself was very wonderful because it helped us realize how the world for the blind people would be around. Everything is just BLACK. After that experiment, we understood that by giving the eyes to us, the great God has done all the favours to us. The world without eyes is very different, very black.

This NGO is fully professionally run, quite transperant and full of young people. The average age of employees is 31 which is very good if you compare it with average NGOs.

It runs ITI courses designed specially for the blind people which includes hand weaving, computer courses, mechanical courses etc. There are specially designed classrooms for them which have some notice boards in brail language. This helps them to understand things in their own language.

BPA is also the place for mentally challenged children and people with other disabilities. Children are specially trained by their dedicated workers and I tell you it is one of the toughest tasks to make this children learn. You have to have the whole world's patience for it along with a beautiful mind and heart. Extremely dedicated and professional people can only do this job.

The employees are well paid as per the fifth pay commission and its attrition rate is almost 0%! Many people have spent their whole lives working here and many youngsters are also part of team. They have created a second line of employees or say they have done a reasonable succession planning.

They have also changed the approach of the donors that rather than giving food to the children, give money and resources to this NGO so that it can be well utilized. They have received scooters, cards, ACs etc in donation which they use well. Their finances are very transperant and they are quite open minded to talk about their investment etc. This is unique as most of the NGOs are poorly managed when it comes to handling finances. They have been able to change the mindest of the donors to "facilitate" the growth.

They run a hospital in Ahmedabad [eye hospital] where surgeries are performed at very minimal cost. They have some six to seven eye specialists working for them. They have some eight to nine branches throughout Gujarat.

This was really a heartening visit as it really changed the way I looked at life. I have realised the importance of being normal and also learnt that those, perceived as mentally/physically challenged, are also as talented or even more talented than we are...Please do visit their website http://www.bpaindia.org/

Then was the visit to Centre for Environment Education in pipeline. Basically it is an organization, recognized by Government of India and Gujarat, which works to create an awareness about good environment practices amongst people by publishing literature, research etc. They also work with the corporate houses to help them in making their practices environment friendly. This organization also works with other NGOs to work in this area. You can visit www.ceeindia.org/

This is the video that shows the special kinds of computers designed for the blind people to use. As you can see, when they press 'A' on the keyboard, there is a sound 'A' pronounced by the software. This helps them to type things and work with word-processors and other packages. We were told that some of the blind people have been the most talented programmers and that their programmes are used some of the top organizations, and an error in that programme would cost them in crores of rupees!

In this video, you can see the BLIND people working on the weaving machine. If not known, one would feel like the workers can actually see. They said the accident rate is almost 0% because these people are extra careful while working on these machines while we so called 'normal' people tend to take the things for granted which leads to accidents.