OASIS@SCHOOLS - AN APPEAL TO CSR PARTNERS
(Holistic Education to Visually Impaired Students in Government Schools - Krishnagiri District, Tamil Nadu, India)
Karna Vidya, a project started 25 years ago by Rotary Club of Madras Coromandel, (RCMC) District 3234, Club Id: 26227, is now an NGO registered with the Government of Tamil Nadu, India and is called Karna Vidya Foundation (KVF). KVF is an approved training centre for Tamil Nadu Skills Development Corporation (TNSDC). KVF’s motto is to empower persons with visual impairment (VI) through technology. Karna Vidya foundation focuses on holistic training and educating students to live an independent and productive life. In all its 25 years, Karna Vidya has been training students free of charge.
Initially, Karna Vidya trained job seekers making them employable and assisting them in getting suitable jobs. Over the last few years KVF has focussed on school children to catch them young and impart skills to enable them to progress in their educational path with wider access to subjects, enhance their overall learning as independently as possible and choose careers of their choice.
KVF’s schools programme started at Government schools and Government aided schools in Tamil Nadu for the visually impaired. KVF now seeks to expand its training also to the unschooled and students in local schools especially in rural areas through Oasis@Schools project by taking education to their doorstep. Most of the parents of visually impaired children at the village level are daily wage earners and its takes enormous effort and sacrifice on their part to bring the children even to the Government Day care centers or inclusive schools.
Oasis@schools is an intensive research-based programme requiring larger financial and human resources given its scope and coverage. Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu, India has been chosen as a pilot project to build a template which can be replicated not only throughout Tamil Nadu or India but even across the world as KVF. To the best of its knowledge, KVF believes that there is no such model currently available.
Oasis@Schools Project overview:
- The project will be for supporting the school children with visual impairment in Krishnagiri district between the age of 6-17 studying in Government and Government aided schools and cover unschooled students and students under an Indian Government project for inclusive education called Samagraha Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
- The project will cover 120 schools and more than 10-day care centers or Block resource centre covering over 500 students.
KVF will provide fully equipped staff and trainers along with hardware, software and other materials needed to cater to the education of children with visual impairment.