Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Filling up their lives with light

Staff Reporter

Forum working for the visually challenged celebrates International Literacy Day

"GREAT WORK": B.T. Bangera, Managing Director, Hi-Tech Arai Limited, honouring a visually challenged person at the function in the city on Saturday.

Madurai: It was a celebration with a purpose when `Vizhiyagam,' a non-governmental organisation working for the welfare of the visually challenged people, celebrated International Literacy Day at its campus on Saturday. It provided succour to the visually impaired by throwing open its resources.

Through its Rotary Helen Keller Talking Book Library (ROHTALK), the NGO had lit the lives of many such people. Their exploits in the field of education is no mean, as there are candidates who turned successful at the Teachers Recruitment Board examinations. All of them credited their accomplishment to ROHTALK.

K. Radha Bai, a visually challenged lecturer at the Government Arts College, Pudukkottai, said, "As education is the key to build a knowledge society, it is imperative for every person to go through it. The gateway for education is the process of thinking and the loss of vision is, in no way, a hindrance to achievement in education. I struggled hard before completing the doctorate with little or no resource such as talking books or the service of the readers, as available nowadays."

B.T. Bangera, Managing Director, Hi-Tech Arai Limited, said that the corporate sector could not shun its social responsibility as it was vital for social development. The services of ROHTALK needed to be acknowledged as they catered to the educational needs of the visually challenged.

Nicholas Francis, Director of the library, provided an overview of the programme. "The programme is designed to provide a platform to express their thoughts and aspirations on literacy," he said.

Successful visually challenged persons in the TRB examinations were honoured. The students of Sociology Department of Fatima College presented `villupattu.'

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