Score Foundation is giving hope to the blind to lead a normal life and see success

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), it is estimated that approximately 1.3 billion people in the world live with some form of vision impairment. The leading cause of this is mainly refractive errors and cataracts.

As of 2017, the National health portal of India carried out a visual loss report for World Sight Day, according to which 253 million people are visually impaired in India, 36 million of whom are completely blind, and 217 million of them have moderate to severe visual impairment.

With an intent to help people with visual impairment lead a normal and fulfilling life, George Abraham (60) founded the Score Foundation in Delhi in 2002. The foundation has been actively working with all the stakeholders in the society to sensitise, educate, and empower individuals about blindness.

It has also given the visually impaired the ability to let their voices be heard. Be it through their national toll free helpline, their All India Radio station, which includes popular programmes such as “eyeway yeh hai roshni ka karawan”, or through the success stories on their social media handle of individuals who have led a meaningful life with blindness.

A vision for life

Being visually impaired when he was just 10-months-old, George always believed that with the right mindset and support from family members, one could lead an enriching life. He felt the “problem was not with the eye, but the mindset”.

However, George’s quest to help the blind started when he visited the blind schools in Delhi and a few other cities in India, and noticed the conditions were not very favourable for them.

“Teachers were not trained effectively to teach and support children with blindness. Further, they avoided going into details when it came to subjects like mathematics and science,” says George.

Another aspect he noticed was there was no equal opportunity given to people with visual impairment.

“Common men would look at persons with visual impairment and say that he is just a blind man, but what they would fail to look at is their capabilities, talent, skill sets, and the overall potential they possessed,” says George.

George says: “I have met many individuals during my stint in advertising who were visually impaired but continued to work and lead an active lifestyle. They did well for themselves and became accomplished lawyers and accountants.”

Similarly, George wanted the visually impaired to be able to have these opportunities and be informed about the endless possibilities that lay ahead, which ultimately led him to start the Score Foundation.

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Making a difference

The foundation strongly believes that every individual in the country with visual impairment has the potential to become an independent, strong-minded, and a fully functional member of the society. According to the team, it merely provides the tools and necessary support to the families of people with visual impairment.

“We re-direct, counsel and advise family members on how to go about looking after and supporting their loved ones through our national toll free helpline,” says Shruti Pushkarna, Head of Communications at Score.

The foundation says, many people from all over the country call them on their national helpline, and connect with the counsellors and staff to seek help.

“Since the counsellors themselves are visually impaired, they can connect with other visually impaired people better. In fact, this helps them to trust the counsellors and share their problems,” says George. 

Score Foundation currently has a total of 10 counsellors who are all visually impaired.

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A positive outlook

Initially, they help these individuals come to terms with their blindness by making them accept the situation first. Later, they help them to think positively by acknowledging the fact that visual impairment doesn’t limit an individual, and that it is more of an ability than a disability.

Later, they provide families with information on what type of education their child, who is visually impaired, should pursue, and for more senior individuals, they help with employment opportunities that might be there, or workplaces they should look to apply, says Shruti.

To achieve this, the foundation works on a three-step approach. First, it shares information through social media; second, connects the visually impaired to the necessary services, and lastly advocates against discrimination, and helps solve legal cases.

Striving to make an impact

Over the years, the Score Foundation has also managed to help a number of families. One of whom was 16-year-old Santosh Kumar from Jamui district in Bihar.

Santosh was born blind, and his parents did not know how to go about raising their child. Santosh’s father was a stonemason and his mother was a homemaker. They sent him to a school in the village, but Santosh struggled to keep up and dropped out in Class 8.

He then joined a camp SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) in his village where he learned to read braille. Here, apart from discovering that visually impaired people could read and write, he also realised his passion for cricket. It was in SSA that he heard about Eyeway and contacted the Score Foundation, which in turn connected him with the Cricket Association for the Blind in India.

Later, Santosh was selected by the association, and he seized the most of the opportunity and secured a place in the state team as a left-arm chinaman bowler and right-handed batsman. Cricket became the motivating force for Santosh, and he proved that despite being blind, one could still strive to achieve great heights.

And while talking about cricket, it is important to note that George was also responsible for organising the first national cricket tournament for the blind in 1990. He founded the Association for Cricket for the Blind in India (ACBI) in 1996, and championed the first-ever world cup for the blind in Delhi in 1998.

Similarly, over the years, the foundation has impacted and changed the lives of a number of visually impaired people and their respective families in India. 

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“From initially receiving 20-30 calls a week, the national helpline today receives at least 2,000 calls a month,” states George.

The foundation has partnered with other centers across India such as the National Association for the Blind & Saksham Disability Trust in New Delhi, Blind People’s Association India in Ahmedabad, Victoria Memorial School for the Blind in Mumbai, Navchetna Institute in Patiala, Little Flower Hospital in Cochin, and Enable India in Bengaluru among many others.

Apart from this, they carry out workshops to educate and sensitise individuals about visual impairment and blindness, they meet with doctors, ophthalmologists, and psychiatrists from different parts of the country and include them in achieving their mission of helping the blind look at life differently.

Despite its achievements, the foundation faced major challenges in terms of funding. It never received any government funding, but, however, in its early days, they received their initial funding from corporates such as Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and Nasscom to name a few.

Looking at the future

Today, George has a number of initiatives planned for the future. “I would really like to make project Eyeway self-sustaining. Further, I would like to help influence the way education is delivered in blind schools. I would like to add value to the education for the blind by providing education modules to schools,” explains George.

He also believes that audio descriptions need to be incorporated in movies in India. “When they have done this in countries like the US and UK for Netflix, the same can be done for the visually impaired in our country to ensure a full movie experience for the blind,” says George.  

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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