The Collabor

ators

19

Bha

vika is a CVI and studies in class 7 in a government school in Rajasthan. Her

family is Below Poverty Line. Sightsavers India has given her a smartphone and she

is constantly receiving support from the project staff. The project team successfully

convinced Bhavika’s father to get internet connectivity for her. She now dreams of

being a teacher some day.

ROYAL COMMONWEALTH

SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND

(SIGHTSAVERS INDIA)

HCL Grant Recipient

Education, 2018

HCL Grant Project Title:

S

ambalan –

Inclusive Education for Children with

Visual Impairment in Rajasthan, Bihar

and West Bengal

Sightsavers India functions through a

multi-pronged approach encompassing ‘Eye

Health’, ‘Inclusive Education for Children

with Disabilities’ and ‘Social Inclusion of

Persons with Disabilities’. It works with the

government and local partners to administer

care, innovating new products to make

surgeries accessible to all. Sightsavers India

has reached over 55 million people and has

conducted over 36 million eye treatments

since its operations began in India.

Sightsavers in partnership with the HCL

oundation, is implementing an ‘inclusive

education’ project in five rural districts of

Rajasthan, Bihar and West Bengal, using

innovations and interventions to enable

quality access to education for Children

with Visual Impairment (CVIs). e

Government of Bihar has provided training

to 56,000+ teachers to create a conducive

environment in schools for CVIs. 37

students with Visual Impairment (CVIs)

passed 10th and 12th board examination

with flying colours. rough the successful

advocacy efforts of the organization, the

Government of Rajasthan has decided

to scale the concept of ‘Model Resource

Room Digital Learning Centres’ to all 33

districts and provide laptops for 100 CVIs.

e West Bengal Government adopted this

model and plans to convert their Block

Resource Centres into Digital Learning

Empowerment Centres (DLECs).