Life of a visually impaired girl from a backward socio-economic background is far more challenging than one can imagine. And city-based Meera Shenoy realises that on a daily basis in the government girls school where her organisation, Youth4jobs, work towards the well-being of these students.
They recently organised an otherwise-unusual event for these visually impaired girls — a nature walk. While the pleasure of experiencing nature is always visual, it was interesting to see how these students, experienced nature through senses of touch and smell.
Visually imapired students at the event.
Talking about their work, Meera says, “Families don’t feed this extra mouth when food is scarce. They do not send them back to school after holidays, some do not take them home when it is holiday time and therefore digital literacy is the key here.”
Visually imapired students at the event.
Describing the students’ experience of the walk, Meera says, “Our latest was a nature walk organised after much brainstorming by her with Sadhana and Kobita. The activity was planned around touch-smell-hearing. We made them feel the rough, lace-like leaves of the peacock shrub. We stopped at the Bakula tree where the kids collected the perfumed flowers. They loved the mountain cotton tree which was in full bloom. They hugged the tree, ran round the grass feeling and picking up the large layered flowers. We passed around a rain stick which is dried cactus filled with seeds that make the sound of rain if rattled. They loved this and did it over and over again with a sense of mystery and magic.”
