By Shivkumar Sharma | Project Leader
At 30 years of age, Chovaram found a new lease of life. Living in the corners of Chhattisgarh, Chovaram and his family had become used to his deafblindness. Chova as he is lovingly called, knew how to move around the house and recognise his family through touch. He spent 25 years inside the four walls of his home, he was now standing outside them earning his keep.
Chova was born in a large family, but his parents and four siblings could sense that he was different from his siblings. He couldn’t follow his mother’s voice or react to the toys put in front of him. They found out that Chovaram was blind and had profound hearing loss. After the assessment, there were many trips to the doctors and all pointed towards the same answer- nothing can be done. At the age of five, his parents enrolled him in a school. The school authorities said no as they had never seen a child like him and the teachers wouldn’t know where to start. Disheartened but determined, Chovaram’s mother started teaching him to do things in the house.
In 2015, while conducting a survey an educator crossed the threshold of Chovaram’s house and a wind of change blew in. The educator noticed that Chovaram had learned to live on his own, but the way he had learned it could not help him in situations outside of home. Chova was enrolled into the project immediately. It was a massive task to unlearn and relearn independent living, personal hygiene, communication and receive an education.
In order to make Chova financially independent, Sense International India initiated an Income Generation Activity with him. Keeping in mind his skills and the market, starting a flour mill was the best option.
The flour mill became the talk of the village. It was fascinating to see Chova operating in the space and delivering the product to his customers without any errors. Chova trained in the space with his educators to gain skills in operating the machine, socialising and recognising currency. The mill gave Chovaram the opportunity to build relationships outside of his home. His shop became a hotspot of conversations and Chovaram finally had some acceptance in society.
The support received from donors through GlobalGiving has helped Sense India to provide the required resources and training to so many children with deafblindness and multiple disabilities like Sirsha to enable them to access education and bringing them closer to their dreams.
We thank GlobalGiving providing such a platform to fulfil the mission of the Non-Profit Organisations like Sense India.
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