Diwali donation for the blind: 5 NGOs to support this festival of lights

YET another Diwali, yet another opportunity to spend the best time of the year with family from near and far, Diyas, sweets, and the symbolic rangoli on the doorway.

Unfortunately, not everyone gets that doorway or the joy this festival of lights brings. Not for a blind girl whose family sees her as a lifelong expense. An elderly blind man whose relatives decided his care was too much trouble. For them, the festival of coming home can feel like it was written for other people.

But Diwali also brings us the opportunity to fill the lives of blind people with hope that they lost. This festive season, extend a helping hand to five NGOs in India doing everything they can to make the lives of blind people better.

Why does a Diwali donation for the blind matter?

Diwali is about coming home. Doorways get lit, relatives arrive, someone always makes too many sweets.

Now picture a blind girl whose family saw her as a lifelong expense. Or an elderly blind man whose relatives decided his care was too much responsibility. For them, that picture of home can be hard to find.

Blindness is still seen as a curse in some communities. Gender bias makes it worse for girls, who can be neglected or kept out of school altogether.

The NGOs below won’t fix that overnight. But each one builds a place where a blind child or elder is wanted, and that’s a fair thing to support when the rest of the country is busy welcoming people home.

Which NGOs for the blind can you support this Diwali?

Each of these is a place your Diwali donation for the blind can go, and each one is led by someone with a personal reason for doing the work.

Bhartiya Netraheen Kalyan Parishad (BNKP): a home for girls nobody wanted

Ramesh Singh, known as “Singh Sir”, lost his sight in adolescence. In the early 2000s he started BNKP for blind girls, who face double discrimination: first for being girls, then for being blind.

BNKP finds abandoned or at-risk girls and gives them residential care. They train in Braille typing and handicrafts, and the NGO helps them move into mainstream education. It also runs workshops for parents and local leaders to challenge myths about blindness.

Hundreds of girls have graduated from the residential home. Some went on to government jobs or higher studies, and others started small weaving and craft businesses. [link: Support Singh Sir’s mission on Give.do]

Blind Welfare Society

Both Dheeraj and Asha Bhola have been visually impaired since childhood. Together they run a residential shelter for blind girls, who are often kept out of school and pushed to the margins.

The girls get a safe place to live, meals, lessons, mobility skills and basic computing. There’s also a weekly counselling group and art therapy, because the Bholas know confidence matters as much as marks.

Dozens of girls have taken charge of their own lives through the shelter. Younger volunteers across the country have been inspired by how the couple work. [link: Support Blind Welfare Society on Give.do]

Shree Navchetan Andhjan Mandal: a home for the blind elderly

Laljibhai Prajapati started SNAM because he saw what happens to blind elders when families decide they’re unproductive. His home offers meals, healthcare, mobility aids and recreation.

Residents also learn basket weaving and herbal remedy preparation. Some tell stories on local radio, which gives the days a purpose beyond waiting.

A mobile outreach team visits homes to find blind seniors at risk of neglect and brings them to SNAM. Hundreds of elderly blind Indians have found dignity and company there. [link: Support SNAM on Give.do]

Divya Jyothi Charitable Trust: Braille for rural classrooms

M. A. Shivaprakash grew up blind in rural Karnataka. Poverty was one problem. The other was a shortage of Braille textbooks, mobility training and teachers who knew how to teach him.

His Trust’s Rural Vision Initiative sets up satellite learning centres stocked with Braille printers, audio-learning devices and tactile teaching aids. Local volunteers run them, many of them parents of blind children, after training from the Trust.

Shivaprakash shares his own story at village assemblies and district workshops. It has helped communities welcome blind children into their classrooms. [link: Support Divya Jyothi on Give.do]

National Association for the Blind (NAB), Delhi: a school since 1952

NAB Delhi runs a special school for blind children aged 4 to 16. The curriculum covers Braille, orientation and mobility, and computer literacy. A residential shelter on campus gives outstation students meals, medical care and counselling.

Older students join vocational workshops where they learn screen reader operation, radio jockeying and handicraft production. A mentorship programme called “Dream Builders” pairs each student with a trained volunteer for tutoring and career guidance.

NAB also works with municipal authorities on tactile walkways and talking traffic signals across the capital. That’s advocacy you can see, or rather, hear, at a pedestrian crossing. [link: Support NAB Delhi on Give.do]

How do you choose where to give?

Start with who you most want to reach.

• Blind girls: BNKP or Blind Welfare Society
• Blind elders: SNAM
• Blind children in villages: Divya Jyothi Charitable Trust
• A city school with a campus and a career pathway: NAB Delhi

If you can’t decide, pick the story you’d repeat to your family over dinner. You’ll care more about where the money goes.

How can you make a Diwali donation for the blind today?

Every NGO above has a donate link on Give.do, which lists over 500 verified NGOs across India. Click the link under the one you’ve chosen and give directly. [link: Give.do blind welfare NGOs page]

Keep the diyas. Light them. Then pick one NGO from this list, donate before the festival ends, and send this post to one person who’s still deciding what to do with their Diwali budget.