One Step Closer

Trupti Tamhankari is a speech and hearing impaired girl from Maharashtra. She started schooling at the age of three from Late SMT, Usha Jamnerkar Mookdhwani Vidyalaya, a Marathi medium school in Ville Parle Mumbai. Her school was already supported by Tech Mahindra Foundation under the ARISE+ programme and they were very supportive of Trupti and encouraged her to learn.

At a very young age, Trupti saw her family go through extreme poverty but she was determined to finish her schooling. Even though she was studying, the disadvantaged conditions of her family did not give Trupti any opportunities for other co-curricular activities until one day when Core Republic came to her school. One of the things that Trupti was attracted to was Martial Arts.

She took up martial arts not only for the sake of safety, but as a form of self-expression. She already has a white belt and is amongst the first set of special children to appear for the black belt examination.

Her teacher is full of praise for Trupti. She is an energetic girl and is an inspiration for all classmates in the school. Girls find it difficult to compete with this hearing and speech impaired child. We are proud of her.

Martial arts has helped groom Trupti’s personality. She is now confident and strong. She courageously says: “After getting the Black Belt, I want to continue Marshal arts to higher levels of expertise and someday I want to be a Martial Arts teacher.”