The valedictory function of the ‘Rotary Club Global-Society for Rehabilitation of the Visually Challenged’ was held the other day.
A workshop on the employability of visually-challenged people was held as part of the function. The panelists included visually challenged professionals, including Kanchan Pamnani, a practicing advocate at the Mumbai High Court, Muhammad Asif Iqbal, a senior consultant at Price Waterhouse Coopers at Kolkata, Srinivasu, who works with Paypal, Chennai, and Ansar, a foot reflexologist running a centre in Kochi. The workshop was moderated by Balachandran, director, SB Global.
Kanchan Pamnani gave a backdrop on the difficulties she faced in her effort to become a leading independent advocate at the Mumbai High Court while Muhammad Asif Iqbal inspired the audience with his speech about how he braved the odds. Srinivasu spoke about the necessity of being technically updated, apart from a good network of contacts. Ansar, a successful entrepreneur, who employs four other visually challenged, spoke about the origin and benefits of refloxology.
Prof Joseph Injodi, principal, Rajagiri School of Social Sciences, Saji Joseph, GM, Le Meridien, Vincent Ramos, GM, Taj Malabar, Parveen Hafeez, MD, Sunrise Hospitals - all employers of visually challenged - spoke. Jyothi Aswani, chairperson, Women’s Forum of the Kerala Chamber of Commerce and M C Roy spoke.
Labour Minister Shibu Baby John delivered the valedictory address and distributed the certificates to the 7th batch students and which included a cash award to the best student. RCG-SRVC project coordinator Sunil J Mathew, M P Joseph IAS, K N Raghavan IAS, Fr Alex Jose CMI and director of Rajagiri school, Venugopal C Govind spoke.