Maha Lakshmi lets her creativity speak through her works. Though her left leg is polio-afflicted, her sewing goes beyond the regular cuts and contours. Today, she experiments the creations with a combination of lace work, ‘kundan’ sequence, and patchwork, which is most sought-after among her clients.
“With the help of a motor-based sewing machine, I can stitch up to 10 blouses in a day. My income varies from Rs.2,000 to Rs.3,000 per month. But during wedding season, it goes up,” says Maha Lakshmi.
Her ultimate goal is to train as many persons as possible, as she feels the craft is quite lucrative. After gaining considerable expertise in the domain, she is now into computer hardware training programme.
“Having different facets in life will help you keep going, and there is nothing wrong in exploring new chapters,” she reasons.
The ‘SMS’ medium is of great help to B. Santosh Kumar, an hearing impaired, at Prajwal Vani Welfare Society (PVWS).
After learning the nuances of computer hardware and networking, his mobile inbox is now flooded with texts requesting him to troubleshoot systems. His clients are BSNL employees, apart from his friends.
“My ambition is to discover an android application and add value to my technical skills,” he communicates in writing.
Ram Chandra is a slow learner. After a year-long training in the advanced course of Cisco Certified Network Administrator, his outlook on life has totally changed.
“Earlier, I was not confident that I could explain the subject. Now, I can train and clear doubts online, even if I am stuck with some other job,” he says.
They all have a common leader to draw inspiration from — K.V.L. Suchitra of PVWS. She has been providing free technical training for differently-abled persons for the last five years.
“These students are special in their own way. The best technique I follow while training them is to show a map and ask them to explore independently. Today, they know how to troubleshoot systems, how to communicate with retailers and wholesale dealers, and address the complaints without any difficulty,” says Suchitra.
From an annual batch of six persons to 73, Suchitra says there is a major change as far as the demand for technical education is concerned.
