Vision-Aid is pleased to announce an exciting new initiative - the “Vision-Aid Challenge” – a program that we hope will help us scale and reach more visually impaired students in under-served regions through our new online platform – the Vision-Aid Online Academy.

 

Here’s how it works:

 

If you know of a blind school or other social organization working with the vision impaired, or an eye hospital that wants to start low vision screening and vision rehabilitation in your town, please connect with them and see if they are interested in partnering with Vision-Aid. Then raise just $5,000 for one year, and send us a proposal. Vision-Aid will bear all of the additional costs and work directly with your recommended organization to provide the computer hardware, software, online technology and know-how and launch a new Vision-Aid center in the partner organization in your favorite town or village in the coming year.  Join us by becoming an ambassador in our mission to reach more and more visually impaired persons in underserved regions.

 

There are just 3 steps in the Challenge to get a Vision-Aid program up and running in your town or village:

 

1.   The interested person agrees to be the main contact point for that proposed partner, and works in collaboration with the Vision-Aid Board to successfully implement the program.

 

2.   The person commits to contributing or raising $5,000 / year to help cover some of the costs. The remainder of the cost and all of the know-how will be provided by Vision-Aid.

 

3.   The organization in India must agree to meet Vision-Aid’s partnership requirements including a review, to ensure that they meet Vision-Aid's standards in terms of its quality of service and operating model.

 

 

Vision-Aid programs at work in 2015

 

Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

(Vision-Aid programs started 2004)

Vision Aid Charitable Services Society (VACS) in Vizag is the flagship partner for Vision-Aid USA. It operates a center in Dwarkanagar, Visakhapatnam, offering 4 comprehensive courses in Computer Applications for the visually impaired. The Vizag team also offers training camps in surrounding blind schools and delivers online classes that are streamed to several remote locations over the internet through the Vision-Aid Online Academy (VOA), in collaboration with www.Gyaanmantra.com

 

Kolkata, West Bengal

(Vision-Aid programs started in 2012)

Susrut Eye Foundation & Research Center, located in Salt Lake area of Kolkata, is a leading eye care provider in the city. Susrut offers state of the art services at an affordable cost to all sections of society and partners with Vision-Aid to offer free low vision screening and vision rehabilitation services in its base hospital as well as thorough its rural outreach program.

 

 Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh

(Vision-Aid programs started in 2015)

The Ahmadi School for the Blind in Aligarh is one of India's oldest blind schools, being established in 1927. The school already has a computer training lab. In 2015, Vision-Aid is establishing a partnership to setup a Vision-Aid Online Academy Station (VOS) to allow students at the school to participate in Vision-Aid courses. Vision-Aid will also provide free laptops to the blind students in the school.

 

Mangalore, Karnataka

 (Vision-Aid programs started in 2013)

Seva Bharathi, a non-profit volunteer-driven service organization was set up in 1991 to help people in distress. Vision-Aid works with Seva Bharathi's Roman & Catherine Lobo School for the Blind to offer computer training to school students as well as other local visually impaired residents in the area.

 

Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu

 

 

(Vision-Aid programs started in 2015)

CADRE-India is a volunteer driven organization working in partnership with the rural poor of India in the southern tip of India –Kanyakumari. Established in 1993, Cadre has a proven track record of service to the disabled and poor. Starting in 2015, Vision-Aid will deliver online classes through the Vision-Aid Online Academy to students at CADRE. 

 

Berhampur, Odisha

 

(Vision-Aid programs started in 2015)

Milton Charitable Foundation for The Visually Handicapped is a volunteer-driven, non-profit working for the welfare of the poor and down trodden, visually handicapped children and adults. Their center is located at Berhampur of Ganjam district Odisha, South India.  Starting in 2015, Vision-Aid will deliver online classes through the Vision-Aid Online Academy to students at Milton School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vision-Aid’s flagship partner in Visakhapatnam, India had a busy and productive 3^rd quarter 2015 with progress on multiple fronts. The highlights of the Quarter included the Society being a recipient of 4 rebuilt computers (from Nasscom) that will aid in their programs, participating at the Rotary Waltair Club exhibition where they were able to showcase their abilities and devices, and meetings with key personnel at the Southern Regional National Council for Teacher Education to include Vision Aid ACA course as part of their curriculum.  Additionally, the Society had a full calendar in terms of organizing events – they hosted a special one day orientation for the management teams from 2 new Vision-Aid partners, as well as a one week partner training for Teachers and Administrators for the two new Partner’s teams. All in all, Q3 2015 has been a constructive quarter for Vision-Aid Charitable Services Society as they continue to march towards supporting the rapidly expanding reach of Vision-Aid programs in multiple locations.

 

The Vision-Aid Team thanks Bhoomika Kumar of Dallas, for her inspired efforts to help make a difference in the lives of the visually impaired through her upcoming dance program. See Bhoomika’s message here!

Bhoomika and her renowned dance guru, Jeyanthi Ghatraju of Boston jointly performed at Dallas to raise funds for Vision-Aid. More about Jeyanthii Ghatraju's background and numerous accomplishments can be found here