All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB)

AICB runs the Captain Chandanlal Special School for the Blind in Haryana (122 children). This year, AICB has enrolled 12 children in this special school who were provided free books, lodging and equipment.

Main Activities for FY2014:

1) Braille Press: AICB’s press produces Hindi story books in Braille. The books were distributed free of cost to 90 institutions. In addition, the press produced magazines and journals in different languages.

This year, it brought out 247 titles in seven languages running into 71,051 volumes, thus benefitting 40,000 readers across the country. AICB provides CDs, DVDs and iPods for the benefit of blind children; this year 481 users benefited from this activity.

2) Guidance for Parents: AICB provides reading material to the parents of blind children. This year, AICB had come up with a handbook in Hindi titled ‘Maa Se Maa Tak’, from Mother to Mother.

3) Training courses: AICB’s Braille Stenography course teaches blind children, Hindi typewriting and computer applications. 15 candidates commenced training in August 2013. AICB also provides a job-oriented course, ‘Diploma in Computer Applications and Communication Skills’ and nine candidates are currently receiving training. With the help of the Government and corporates, a total of 18 blind individuals have found jobs in various government departments and the private sector.

4) Rural Rehabilitation: AICB provided training and rehabilitation services for visually impaired persons at their door step, through their disability specific Community Based Rehabilitation approach, in Uttar Pradesh & Haryana. About 600,000 people were surveyed across 264 villages and 811 with disabilities were identified.  AICB conducted Eye Screening in 217 schools covering almost 27,000 children. Glasses were provided to 1,380 children and 3,129 adults. Intraocular Lens Surgery was conducted for 2,585 persons. Vitamin A Capsules were distributed among 505 children.

5) Other Activities: This included providing scholarships to 132 children, training to 31 visually challenged women and hostel facilities to 55 college going visually impaired girl students.