Feed a differently abled student for a month through employee giving

Impact

Priyanka is a young girl from in Belgavi, Karnataka. Life has never been easy for her as she was **born visually impaired. Her father was a farmer and the sole earning member of the family. They could not afford to treat her.**She enjoyed learning despite her physical limitations. She allowed nothing to stop her and was regular to school. She completed her PUC and BA in Bengaluru. She aimed for greater heights and was not ready to give up. Unfortunately, **her family did not have the means to support her further.** They did not want to crush her dreams but were unsure how to pay all the added expenses that would come with her education. **When her parents heard of Samarthanam, they approached the organisation for help.** They decided to help Priyanka continue her studies. They provided her with **free accommodation, food, recorded course material and assistance in everyday living.** Thanks to Samarthanam, she completed her MA from Bangalore University. She is an enthusiastic learner and scored first class consistently throughout her education. She knows that none of this would have been possible without Samarthanam's care and support.

About The Program

Samarthanam started the initiative of providing shelter for young students pursuing their education in Bangalore, in an effort to prevent rural students from dropping out of educational institutions owing to financial constraints. Samarthanam provides these students with secure shelter, nutritious food, and safe transportation. Though the hostels were initially opened only for young girls, they now cater to students across gender and age groups. To ensure holistic development of the children in the hostels, the organization also provides them with free tuition and exposure to extracurricular activities. Visually impaired students are also given specially recorded course materials, to help them excel in academics. Samarthanam runs three hostels in Bangalore in HSR Layout and JP Nagar, which can be availed by differently abled, and underprivileged students studying in the city.

About The NGO

Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled is a National Award winning NGO that works for the empowerment of persons with disabilities and the underserved. They primarily cater to people in need by providing a plethora of services including quality education, accommodation, nutritious food, vocational training, sports and placement based rehabilitation. Their initiatives strive towards creating opportunities for them to keep pace with the rest of the society. Today they stand as a complete solution provider by supporting education and livelihood needs of persons with disabilities and those from underprivileged backgrounds. Apart from these initiatives, they also foster the game of blind cricket amongst visually impaired players across India, through their cricketing arm Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI). They envision to touch at least 100,000 lives by 2020, providing comprehensive solutions to the differently-abled and underserved communities. They were felicitated with the National Award for Child Welfare by the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India and received it from Smt. Pratibha Patil, Honourable President of India in 2010.