From Despair to Determination

Disability is a cutting-across theme in the work that the Foundation does in the areas of education and employability. This is a story from the skill-training project in Mumbai where youth with disabilities get trained in experiential learnings. 

Vidya Patil (28 years) is a facilitator, partially speech and hearing impaired, an exceptionally bright student who topped school exams under Persons with Disabilities (PWD) candidates. Her father lost his job as a book-binder and her mother worked as domestic help and baby-sitter. Financial challenges always prodded her to work and she started giving tuitions to SHI (speech and hearing impaired) candidates to supplement her educational expenses. 

Vidya pursued BSc in Computer Science and took training in sign language. Her interpretation skills were excellent. She decided to work for the speech and hearing impaired and her experience of working as an interpreter at Ruia College groomed her well.  She joined SujayaFoundation as a trainee intern and seeing her expertise in typing and computers, she was offered a data entry job and she voluntarily started assisting SHI trainees with data-entry tasks. When TMF partnered with Sujaya Foundation, Vidya was a natural choice for a trainer since she had been helping students learn computer and IT skills. She evolved organically from being a trainee to becoming a facilitator and now teaches computer, math and sign language. Vidya worked on her communicative English and inter-personal skills, learned from guest lectures by life-skills moderators and now during online training, it is a delight to see her taking life-skill sessions with confidence.  A team-player, motivator and role model to her students, Vidya’s story is one of personal triumph over adversity.