Running to raise funds for the blind

George Abraham, who lost his eyesight when he was 10 months old and now heads NGO Score Foundation that runs India's first helpline for the blind, will run in the Delhi Half Marathon next month to raise funds for a multilingual help desk for the blind.

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Abraham will run the 21-km Delhi Half Marathon Nov 27. It is an annual event that sees participation from celebrities, sportspersons and large number of common people, including disabled. It will enter into its seventh edition this year.

'I am planning to run again this year Nov 27. My target is to raise Rs.500,000 towards the Eyeway National Helpdesk for the blind, India's first such helpline,' Abraham told IANS. He ran in the last event also.

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The help desk was launched in 2006 when people from across the country started calling the NGO with queries pertaining to their lives with blindness in response to its weekly radio programme 'Eyeway Yeh Hai Roshni Ka Karawan'.

'We receive an average of 35 to 40 calls every week. The calls relate to education, careers, technology, legal provisions, concessions, parenting, discrimination and so on,' Abraham said.

His dream is to reach out to people in the language they are most comfortable with. Eyeway in Oriya was launched early this year in partnership with Bhubaneshwar's Open Learning System.

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'Language must not be a barrier to gain access to information on life with blindness. We will launch Eyeway in Bengali and Malayalam later this year,' he said.

'In the next three years, we will work towards being able to reach to the majority of blind people in the country in the language they understand,' he added.

The NGO is also trying to put together a single toll free number that blind people from across the country can call on.