The move to Chennai from Mayiladuthurai, a small town in Nagapattinam district, to pursue higher education subjected Karthick to culture shock.
Urban living was new to Karthick. Besides that, there were many assignments as part of his B.Ed. course. And, there was another major problem — Karthick is visually-challenged and he needed help to get around the city. Through a friend, Karthick learnt about Vision Companion and for the last two years, he is coping well with these challenges.
“The volunteers were so accommodative. After college hours, they would stay back to read and write for me,” says Karthick who comes every day from Kodambakkam to Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) in Chromepet to avail this free service.
There are hundreds of other students like Karthick who will vouch for the excellent service rendered by members of Vision Companion, which is an initiative by the Youth Red Cross of MIT.
For the last 20 years, this social group run by students has been offering assistance to the visually-impaired by reading and scribing for them.
The college does not have a count of the number of students that have benefited from Vision Companion, but there is no doubt that this is one of the most successful social projects that the college continues to run.
“I felt so happy when my birthday was celebrated for the first time by members of Vision Companion,” says Karthick.
Evening classes
The classes are conducted during the week from 4.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. at a room on the ground floor of the Lecture Hall Complex. Currently, three student representatives — Nikash Ramesh of Automobiles department, Sivamugesh Aiyavoo of Electronics and Communication and Mehala Devi of Computer Technology — are coordinating the programme. The coordinating team changes every year.
They publicise the programme at other colleges.
Calls from visually-challenged students seeking help are recorded in a ‘Vision phone’, kept at the college. The calls are monitored on a regular basis.
Requests for a scribe ahead of an examination and for someone to run errands are also processed by student volunteers.
For those staying away from the city, volunteers send recorded lessons through WhatsApp or deliver them in a pen drive.
“We sometimes pick the visually-impaired person from the railway station, and make them comfortable by initiating a friendly talk. Then we move on to their lessons and assignments,” says Mehala Devi, a final-year student of Computer Technology, who has been volunteering for the last two years.
On an average, 20 student-volunteers can be seen offering some service.
“We have no rigid rules about how many hours of service a volunteer should offer. It’s a need-based thing and before exams, we have more requests,” says Nikash Ramesh. Regular sessions consist of general knowledge, learning five new words in English and solving aptitude problems. A small test is conducted every Friday. The winner of every week is rewarded at Youthfest, an annual fest dedicated to the differently-abled.
