(MarketStar – IEET India) ongoing effort of contributing towards the lesser fortunate in society, which we are a part of, we collectively decided to do a small contribution for a blind school in Bangalore.

As a part of our About the School which we chose: Sri Rakum School for the Blind (www.rakum.org) is a residential school not only for the blind but also for orphans and street children. Sri Rakum School for the Blind educates 250 kids of which the majority of them are blind and some are orphans. These kids are from families living below the poverty line, they are shunned, denied a normal childhood and the opportunities to grow into normal citizens.


Our Experience at Sri Rakum School for the Blind: We entered the school around dusk. The level of energy and activities around us took us by surprise. It was not easy to understand blindness as what people perceive it to be. Although they were blind, they had smiling faces with an attitude to take life as it comes.


We spoke to Sri Rakum Acharya who runs the School and he narrated situations i.e. when, how and where these kids were picked up from. The stories were disturbing but when he showed us the kids of whom he spoke about, it seemed that they had come to terms with the reality of life and we could see that they had decided to move on. The key learning for all of us was that in our lives “We need to be like the stream that meanders through all obstacles rather than being the stone in the stream trying to stay put and just losing out in the end”.


Education at Rakum is the #1 priority. We were astonished to know that education (till Masters-Post Graduation) was offered along with the acquisition of life skills. It was truly inspiring to know about a student Veena who was the first to complete her Masters in Social Sciences. She is now employed as a Headmistress and Warden at the same school that she grew up in.


Our Interactions with Kids: We were emotionally stirred by seeing the plight of these kids, as it was our first visit. Gradually when we started interacting, we were surprised to know, how friendly they were to everyone. This made us realize that, all they needed was love, care, affection and attention from the society. The imperative learning for us was that these kids also need our time apart from other contributions. We cannot say that we have made an impact in their lives, as these kids’ lives are distinctively different from ours. We only hope that we have assisted in making some of their routine chores easier.

Our Meager Contributions: When Praveen and Marco met Sri. Rakum Acharya, he had pointed out that they were facing problems with the plates in which meals were served, as the blind kids would mix the variety of food on their plates. This plight of the blind children really moved us. We decided to help them by providing 250 stainless steel plates with compartments and enable the blind kids to relish the variety of food served.


This is indeed just one little step and we have a long way to go….