Inspiring Journey of Pallavi

Pallavi was leading a normal life until she was detected with a brain tumour at the age of 10. Although she got cured of the life-threatening illness but the surgery rendered her blind for life. Due to this, she had to drop out of school as she was not able to cope with her studies. She was further devastated as her blindness now added to the existing misery of poverty with an abusive and alcoholic father. Looking for a way out to learn, she got to know about the Shiksha School, the joint initiative of Tech Mahindra Foundation and Silver Linings Foundation, in Mayur Vihar Phase 3. 

After joining the school in 2017, an individualised education program was designed by looking at her previous knowledge and learnings. Under this program, she learned Braille and started using a computer with speaking software that helped her with reading English texts. Later, she tried other assistive technologies for reading and writing which collectively helped her to move, cook and build social as well as personality skills, independently. Within just 6 months in the programme, she was integrated into class 5 of Salwan Public School, a regular school. As of 2022, Pallavi is in class 10th and can do all her reading and writing work independently. 

The program greatly impacted her life which was proven by her scoring 94% marks in class 8 and 92.4% in class 9. Through the programme, she gained so much confidence that she actively participated in sports as well as extracurricular activities like dance and music. To push herself, she ran three Marathons and secured the first position in a wall climbing competition scoring 5 points when her sighted classmates only scored 2 or 3 points. Currently, she is also supporting other blind students in the school to get integrated into classes with regular sighted students.

She hopes to carry forward her zeal to learn and aspires to become an IAS officer one day. Pallavi is a true example of shining above all odds and we are proud of her.