By Shruti Pushkarna | Project Leader
The greatest measure of impact is when the recipient of change becomes the ‘changemaker’ himself. Over the years, thousands of callers have shared their queries and concerns with us. We offer them solutions and continue to follow up on their progress. We closely track their transformation as that becomes an indicator of our intervention. This quarter, we are happy to report the case of Sunny Piplani, an old client of Eyeway who has now taken on the responsibility of empowering other disabled people like him.
32 year old Sunny lives in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. He started to lose his eyesight due to Retinitis Pigmentosa when he was studying in Class IV. But Sunny continued and somehow finished Class IX in a mainstream school. Due to lack of awareness and ignorance of options available for pursuing further studies as a blind person, Sunny had to drop out of school. He was pushed into a life full of despair, not knowing how to move forward. Fortunately, one of his visits to Shroff Eye Charity Hospital led him to visit Eyeway office in New Delhi. Sunny was pleasantly surprised to see visually impaired people like him work efficiently as Eyeway counselors. He saw them talk to people, inform them of possibilities and seamlessly use computers to perform their jobs. This instilled a sense of confidence in Sunny and he felt determined to achieve something. He inquired about vocational training courses he could take up in order to gain employment. Eyeway counselors directed him accordingly and Sunny trained himself into becoming self-reliant. Our counselors hand held Sunny through his transition and training, offering continous guidance.
After being empowered with the help of Eyeway, Sunny was determined to help others like him, to educate and train those who did not know about the possibilities of living life with blindness. With help from his family business of sports good manufacturing, he set up a venture to train and employ persons with disabilities. Sunny contacted Eyeway yet again, this time to share details of his vocational training center. He was looking for help to find suitable disabled candidates to train. Eyeway counselor put him in touch with several organizations where he could find candidates for his center, including Silver Linings, Blind Relief Association, National Association for Blind, Jayati Bharatam Institute and so on. We also disseminated information about his training and employment offering through our website and whatsapp channels. As a result, Sunny has found his candidates and successfully started his business of placing disabled people and empowering them. From someone who contacted us 6 years ago in utter hopelessness, Sunny has grown into an independent, economically self-reliant individual who is empowered enough to help others in need.
Apart from the training center he has opened up for the disabled, Sunny successfully runs a garment shop in his hometown.
To see our clients become self-reliant, empowered and independent is the ultimate objective of Team Eyeway!
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