Lending their voices to lift lives of visually challenged

Organised by ‘Lit the Light’, a group formed four years ago by Bharath S N and Ramkumar, the initiative’s objective is to spread awareness on how the public can volunteer to make the life of the visually challenged better by reading and scribing for them.

“Visually-impaired people study in Braille until the eighth standard, after which they require the help of others to read and then scribe for them in exams. We have been constantly sending out volunteers all over Tamil Nadu to help them in the last four years. As of now, we are involved with over 30 institutes in Chennai and have worked with 6,000 volunteers across the state,” explains Bharath.

Their volunteer base comes from college students and young professionals, who like the founders themselves, find time on weekends and evenings to work with those in need. 

“There are others who also read textbooks and record audio files using applications, which are then played to the visually challenged persons,” says Bharath.

The team plans to hold a reading campaign this weekend on October 28 (Sunday) from 9am to 5pm at the Presidency College, where the public are invited to be part of an experiential programme that will hopefully inspire them to be first-time volunteers. 

Titled ‘Lit the Light Read Fest 2018’, the event will kick off a campaign that the team hopes will make its away across the city in due course of time.