Arjun was born partially blind. With doctors giving no hope that his eyesight would get any better, his parents were constantly worried about his education and ability to support himself. However, like many others from a low-income group, they were unable to afford treatment for their son.
India is home to 70 million
persons with disabilities (PwDs). While challenges exist for all, these
challenges assume more serious proportions for people from the low-income
sections. Like Arjun, they are deprived of treatment and the chance to build a
life of dignity for themselves.
It is this section of society
that WORTH Trust aims to help. WORTH, which stands for
Workshop for Rehabilitation and Training of the Handicapped, aims to create
opportunities for vocational training and avenues for employment for handicapped
individuals in India.
A Solution with Dignity
WORTH Trust uses a two-pronged model that addresses challenges faced by PwDs at various levels. Production
units run by the trust manufacture high-quality industrial components, affordable mobility aids, and assistive devices. These units, located across four southern cities of Katpadi, Pondicherry, Tiruchirapalli, and Chennai, employ PwDs and provide them with honourable livelihood opportunities. Not only does WORTH work towards creating a barrier-free world for the physically challenged, it does this work with the help of persons with disabilities, creating a circle of empowerment.
The surplus
generated from the production units is ploughed back into the system and
supports the second arm — the rehabilitation centres. Technical training
centres provide free vocational training to boys and girls with orthopaedic and
hearing challenges. Other programs include a school for the speech and hearing
impaired and a day care centre for children with intellectual challenges. With this unique cross-subsidy
model, WORTH aims to mainstream children like Arjun by providing them with
training and employment. Beginning as support for the Swedish Red Cross’ work
to rehabilitate people with leprosy in 1963, WORTH has come a long way. Today
it embraces the social responsibility of rehabilitating PwDs and demonstrating
that every person has a useful role to play in society and the right to live a
full life.
Expanding
Through Technology
The road to achieving this impact
was not free from obstacles. Getting enough work in the initial days was a
challenge. As WORTH expanded, it encountered different trials. With a growing
number of centres, managing daily processes such as accounts posed a big
challenge. Each unit maintained separate physical records, which had to be
manually collated. Simple tasks such as communication between centres would
take up a large amount of time and bring down efficiency. The management was
spending far too much time on manual processes.
To automate systems, a part of
the funds was invested in buying computers. However, faced with high prices,
the organization was not able to invest in genuine software, and low security
caused their systems to crash. WORTH was desperate for a solution to this
crisis. Around this time, through a
friendly IT consultant, WORTH Trust heard about NASSCOM Foundation’s software
donation initiative, BigTech. WORTH Trust registered on the platform. Within a
few days, WORTH was able to acquire genuine licenses for their computers and
email servers. An efficient mechanism of data entry and collection was worked
out, and all employees received email accounts through the organization to
maintain safe and fast communication. This not only created efficient systems
but also saved time that could be much better utilized.“ Being a self-sustaining
organization, WORTH believes in putting every penny back into the cause they
support. The
software donations freed up funds that would have been used for IT expenses. These funds were
used in the education and training of children, creating empowered citizens for the
future.
Success through Collaboration
NASSCOM Foundation’s BigTech donations program, run in partnership with TechSoup Global, aims to support the work of NGOs such as WORTH. Through software donations, NASSCOM aims to bring in efficiency and other benefits that technology can provide to the Indian NGO sector. WORTH Trust received donations of Windows Remote Desktop Services, Windows 8, and Windows Server Datacenter Edition and has steadily integrated technology into its work. To streamline processes further, the management is now planning to install biometric attendance systems for the staff that work at their production units. To learn more about the work of WORTH Trust visit: http://www.worthtrust.org.in/
