iTV Foundation, the CSR wing of iTV Network, in partnership with Hotel Pullman & Novotel New Delhi Aerocity, organised a special Diwali celebration for the visually-impaired students at Delhi’s Blind Relief Association on 5 November.
The evening was graced by the Bollywood star Chitrangda Singh and Aishwarya Sharma, Chairperson of iTV Foundation. Representatives of Hotel Pullman & Novotel New Delhi Aerocity were also in attendance.
The event began with the distribution of hand-made chocolate brownies and food among the students and staff of the Blind Relief Association.
While talking about the initiative, Aishwarya Sharma said, “I am glad to be a part of this special Diwali event. While spending time with these students, I realised that their own lives are in dark but I can see the joy on their faces as they showcase their talent in making beautiful candles and diyas that will bring light into all our lives.”
At the event, Kailash Chandra Pandey, executive secretary of the Blind Relief Association, spoke to the audiences about the work his organisation is doing for the blind. He said, “It is a big thing that people are coming to see our work. Our association has been working since 1944, primarily in the education sector and secondly in human resource development. We have our own school where we teach visually-impaired kids from nursery to the 12th standard and further.”
Pandey also highlighted the role such initiatives play in empowering the underprivileged. He said, “We believe that blindness should not become an identity of a person, they can also do what other people can do. Events like this help us to raise awareness in our society.”
The Blind Relief Association, in addition to imparting education to the visually-impaired, also puts ample emphasis on skill development. Elaborating on this, Pandey said, “We teach the students multi-vocational skills, so they can have more than one option to sustain themselves, and simultaneously, we educate them. We are working on lots of models to make them employed. Like, today, we talked to Hotel Pullman & Novotel New Delhi Aerocity about a collaboration whereby our students would be able to work with the spa team in their hotel.”
Later in the evening, the visually-impaired children and volunteers of the Blind Relief Association got the chance to interact with Chitrangda Singh during the course of various sessions on diya- and candle-making, gift-wrapping, storytelling, and shayari.
Chitrangda shared with us her thoughts after the interaction. “I feel very humble to meet these talented people. It is very encouraging to see them doing so much despite the disability. I hope we get more people to come and support this whole setup because they [the Blind Relief Association] are doing a thankless job for our society,” she said.
“As a Delhiite, I have often visited the Blind School Diwali Bazaar and I have always been impressed with their immense talent, and the beautiful products on display,” she added. “I thank the iTV Foundation, Blind Relief Association and Pullman New Delhi Aerocity for helping put together a wonderful evening.”
We also talked to one of the oldest staff members at the Blind Relief Association, Rajkumar, to know more about his work there. He told us, “I have been working here from the last 25-30 years. I make candles throughout the year and ahead of Diwali we get more work. This work helps us to sustain our daily life. Though I also do some work outside—like making furniture, playing music at devotional gatherings—this remains my permanent job.”
The general manager of Novotel New Delhi Aerocity, Ajay Sampige, pledged his support to the association and its students at the event. He said, “It’s been a great evening with kids… It brings us back to the difficult reality of life. Today, while speaking to the manager of the association to see and make an agenda where we can promote these kids to work in our complex, I got to know that these kids can do spa therapy, and this is so interesting. We have people in our hotel who are blind and work in service areas and house-keeping, but knowing that their students can provide spa therapy opens up new opportunities. So we look forward to collaborating with the Blind Relief Association.”