L-R – Sunil Sheth Global President of Sense International, Amruta Fadnavis, Mr Amith Dholakia-Chairperson, Sense India, Akhil Paul, Founder & Executive Director, Sense India
Mumbai, 8th March, 2024: Sense India stands out as the sole national-level organization offering tailored services to empower children and adults facing challenges posed by deafblindness & multiple disabilities. The primary goal of Sense India is to deliver essential information, guidance, and training, alongside a strong commitment to supporting individuals with deafblindness and multiple disabilities, as well as their families. This commitment extends to nationwide awareness campaigns and efforts to secure their rights, opportunities, and access to services.
An evening with Sense India was organised in Mumbai to introduce Sense India’s work in the field of deafblindness, raise awareness and resources to sustain and expand their work across India. Their focus this year is on women and girls with deafblindness and multiple disabilities. Being one of the most marginalised groups, women and girls with disabilities face the double discrimination due to gender and disability. Sense India’s intervention includes vital support on sexual & reproductive health and mental health aspects in addition to education support. 8th March is celebrated world over as International Women’s Day making this evening even more meaningful to bring the focus on the girl child with disability.
In the event held at The Sofitel Hotel, BKC, Mumbai, Sense India launched an exclusive Coffee table Book – ‘Senses Lost and Found- Inspiring Stories’ that encompasses a collection of short stories of children and adults with deafblindness showcasing their journey and the role of Sense India across the last 26 years. The evening also witnessed the premiere of a short film ‘We to exist’ based on the success story and showcasing Sense India’s work over a span of 26 years.
Through this event, Sense India introduced itself as not only a national level organisation working in the field of deafblindness but also as a recognisable ‘face and name’ in the development sector and started a dialogue with individuals and decision makers and high net worth individuals (HNI), which would be cultivated and nurtured into long term champions of Sense India and the cause of deafblindness. It also envisioned to engage new supporters to contribute to its nation-wide work with persons with deafblindness and raise funds through pledges.
Speaking at the event, Akhil Paul, Executive Director, Sense India, said, “Being one of the most marginalised groups, women and girls with disabilities face the double discrimination due to gender and disability. Sense India’s intervention includes vital support on sexual & reproductive health and mental health aspects in addition to education support. Through this event, we aim to introduce Sense India’s work in the field of deafblindness and create more awareness and resources to withstand and magnify our scope of work across India.”
Sense India has specialised expertise in the domains of deafblind communication, mobility, accessible information, assistive devices and rehabilitation. With its unique technical know-how in the field of deafblindness and multiple disabilities, Sense India uses a multi-pronged approach since 1997. This includes technical assistance to its partner NGOs and direct training of their staff to work with children and adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities.
