Month: March 2016

• Counseling the parents of the visually impaired
• Counseling the parents of the visually challenged
• Seminar on the Artistry of Upbringing
• Artistry of Upbringing

Date : 7 December 2012

• In order to equip the visually challenged with new strategies in accessing the environment, the club conducted a seminar on Accessibility on 7th December 2012 at Alumni Club.
• The seminar was conducted by Mr. Daniel Kish, an American Visually Challenged Mobility Specialist who made a cameo appearance in the famous Tamil film Thaandavam.
• The seminar enabled the participants to understand new strategies for independent mobility.

Date : 6 Oct 2012

• Held at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore, the workshop aimed to open a new window for the visually challenged students.
• It is aimed at educating the visually challenged on the skills required to engage themselves in Tamil journalism, to help create employment opportunities for visually challenged in journalism and media.
• The workshop was co-sponsored by Tamil monthly magazine(Parivu).
• The speakers were practitioners in Tamil journalism and they provided very relevant sessions on Journalism and Ethics, News gathering and Recording, Audio-Visual Media and News Prioritizing and Editing, etc.
• A demo of independent computer usage by visually challenged was conducted to familiarize using computers to read and write in Tamil.

 

Date : 13 July 2013

• The learners and the learned from the visually challenged and the sighted gathered together for a brainstorming workshop on Math and Science learning at Little Flower Convent [LFC] on the 13th July 2013 [Saturday].
• The resource person of the day was none other than Mr. Karthik Sawhney an innovator of Math and Science Learning, Student scholar Stanford Varsity U.S.A.
• The inauguration began with a mellifluous spiritual song by Ms. Akshaya a student of music at 10 30 am.
• Dr.Subbiah pandian the head and associate professor of physics at presidency college, the chief guest of the day, explained the scientific concepts in simple terms with simple demonstrations.
• Mr. Rohan an alumnus of Delhi IIT and the Correspondent and Principal of Little Flower Convent were also present at the function.
• Then Mr. Kartik took over the stage and conducted series of sessions on using Math and Science concepts with reference to academics and school syllabus. Parallelly, common learning devices for Math and Science were exhibited by Saksham - an NGO working for the empowerment of visually challenged at Delhi for the benefit of the students and teachers.
• After lunch, Mr. Rohan an innovator of the Smart Cane, highlighted essentialness of science and Ms Pushpa explained the Math and Science Models to students and teachers. At the end, there was a healthy interaction between Mr. Kartik and the audience. The valediction begins at 4 30 pm.
• Mr. Dinakar IRPS, presided over the function as the chief guest and Mr. Naga Reddy as the special invitee for the function.
• Mr. Dinakar, in his speech, emphasized the need for attitudinal change and branching out to different departments.
• Mr. Naga Reddy extended his fullest cooperation for Drishti's endeavors in his speech. Finally, the workshop ended with vote of thanks.
• On the whole, The Workshop became an effective platform for bringing in innovators such as Mr. Kartik Sawhney and Mr. Rohan, Special Educator Ms. Pushpa and Innovative learning models from Saksham for the benefit of the visually challenged students and academicians.
• The event was video graphed and covered by both print and visual media.

Date : July 2014

• This workshop is the first of its kind to be conducted for the visually challenged youth in Tamil Nadu.
• With the perspective to sensitize the employments in both audio and visual Media and to highlight the necessary qualifications required to fetch such employments for the visually impaired youth, Rotaract Club of Drishti had conducted a one-day Workshop on Voice and Non-voice based employments in Media on 13 07 2014 (Sunday) at RR Towers 3, Guindy, Chennai.
• Team of professionals led by Mr. Dheena from Academy of Radio Studies conducted the workshop chairing different sessions such as being an RJ, Voice –Over Artist, Script Writing and so on.
• The workshop was inaugurated by Dr Gowri, Professor and head, Dept of Media Science and Director, Anna Community Radio, Anna University, Chennai.
• Mr. Vinoth Rajesh, Documentary Film Maker, Anna University, graced the occasion as the guest of Honour. Mr. Kalaianban, Senior Programmed Executive, AIR, was the chief guest and Mr. Jeevanandam, Director, Thendral Community Radio, Chennai was the Guest of Honour during the valedictory function.
• The workshop received a healthy response and more than 56 students participated in a healthy way.
• After an overview of all the basics of the workshop during the morning, the students were assigned to perform a new caption along with a promo for their creative Radio FM during the evening.
• Their creativity was displayed through fine Demos by the participants. On the whole, this new venture, i.e. this workshop provided a new feel and instilled confidence in the minds of the visually impaired to pursue new employments.

Date : 13 oct 2014

• Building an accessible Arena is a prime objective of millions of disabled friends in India.
• In order to represent and voice out such essential need to the society, Rotaract Club of Drishti with Karna Vidya Technology Centre conducted the first State level Conference on Accessibility for the visually impaired on 11th October 2014 at Institute of Mathematical Sciences, CIT Campus, Tharamani, Chennai.
• Mr. B. Suresh Kamath, MD, Patterns Design Software Instute inaugurated the conference along with Mr. Ramesh Srinivasan, Psychologist and RTN PS Suresh.
• It was then followed by three different sessions on Physical Access, Computer and Mobile access and Web access respectively.
• Experts such as Mam Smitha Sadasivam from Vidyasagar, Mr. Raveendar, Accessibility Engineer, Mam Poonkuzhali from ELCOT and DR Sam Tarapoervala from XRCVC, Mumbai were the resource persons who shared their thoughts on various topics during the plenary sessions.
• Among the 18, around 10 papers were presented and queries were addressed by the presenters effectively.
• The interactions between the Government official and the audience proved meaningful and constructive as the official promised to take forward the recommendations to the government.
• Mr. Subrahmanya Rao, Senior Director, Technology, CTS, Mr. Dinakar, DCPO, Southern Railways, RTN Sridhar and RTN Visvanathan from RCMC graced the valedictory function. The certificates were issued to the paper presenters and participants at the end of the day.

Date : 21 Jan 2015

• With all good wishes, RC Drishti, for the first time in the history, has successfully run the stall at the Chennai Bookfair 2015 between 09 01 2015 - 21 01 2015.
• This event  that stands for social integration marks the beginning of the journey towards social inclusion.
• The objective to create awareness about accessible and independent learning tools for the visually impaired among the public was well met.
• More than 300 visitors [professionals, employers, volunteers and visually impaired]across Tamilnadu visited the stall and got benefited.
• Some have expressed their willingness to be volunteers, some are ready to share their professional expertise, and some requires training and employment at KVTC.
• The stall was wholly managed by Drishti Rotaractors from different colleges. They did the demos and explained in detail the ways and means to become self-independent and self-reliant using technology in terms of education and employment.
• 3 print media - Indian Express, Tamil Hindu and Times of India and 4 visual media - Pudhiya thalaimurai, Vendhar, Thanthi TV and News 7 Tamil  gave a good coverage of our stall.

Date : 13 July 2015

• In order to infuse scientific temper amongst the visually impaired school students (pursuing 7-10th Standards), Rotaract Club of Drishti conducts a one day Workshop on Science Learning on the 13 07 2015 at St Louis School for the blind, Adyar.
• The programme was inaugurated by Mr Ramesh, Civil Engineer and Mrs Kalaimani Babu.
• During his address, the chief guest insisted on developing the Scientific temperament among the school children.
• He also requested everyone to focus on bringing in accessible technologies/devices/environment to enable the visually impaired pursue science subjects in higher education.
• All the sessions on Chemistry, Physics and Byology were handled by Chakchumathi, an NGO working towards inculcating science learning among the visually impaired.
• The sessions were modeled on practical demos and at the end of the day, the students were taught to design a Wind-Mill using small day-to-day materials.
• During the valedictory function, all the 70 student participants expressed their happiness and interest to further their Scientific pursuits in their higher education.
• They were given certificates along with a Science Kit. The function was graced by the GM, IOB, Chennai who, in his speech, has appreciated the enthusiasm of the students and extended his support for all the endeavours for their educational betterment.

• Workshop on Science Learning
• First ever stall in bookfair
• Building an Accessible Arena
• Workshop on Voice and Non-voice based Vocations in Media
• Workshop on Science and Math learning
• Workshop on Tamil Journalism
• Seminar on Accessibility

Parallel music fest 2014

• Drishti got an opportunity to co-organize with the rotary club of madras coromandel, super singer competition for a second consecutive year.
• Nearly 75 visually impaired youth across Tamilnadu participated, and staged their artistic expertise in classical vocal, light music vocal and light music instrumental to the audience.
• The prelims held at Adayar youth hostel, and the finals at Music academy Chennai.
• The winners of that three categories dewly appreciated and awarded during the parallel music fest award function Kalai mamani H Ramakrishnan, MR. Murali [The Hindu] and Sangeetha Kalanithi 2014, graced the Function at music academy mini hall Chennai.

Parallel Music Fest 9th December 2013

• Drishti in coordination with it’s parent club RCMC has conducted the parallel music fest very successfully on 9th December 2013 at the Music Academy, Main Auditorium.
• Having received a good response from the visually challenged artists during 2012, RCMC, for the first time, conducted Super Singer Competition for the visually challenged youngsters between 13 to 25 of age.
• The competition was conducted under 3 categories namely: Classical Vocal, Light Music Vocal and Light Music Instrumental.
• Students in large numbers participated across schools and colleges in Tamilnadu and won several prizes Ms. Akshaya and Ms. Gomathi won the Super Singer 2013 Shield in Classical Vocal and Light Music Vocal respectively.

Parallel Music Fest December 2012

• On the 3rd of December 2012, on the occasion International Disability day, the club in cooperation with Rotary Club of Madras Coromandel, conducted a Parallel classical music fest by budding visually challenged Carnatic singers at the Music Academy, Mylapore.
• This gave singers greater confidence and an opportunity to exhibit their inherent potentials and this was well-appreciated by the audience.
• This was organized to exhibit the inherent talent of the visually challenged budding singers.