VE’s Ananda meets Microsoft’s Give!

Vision Empower collaborated with Microsoft India for a remarkable volunteering event on 4th October 2023. This event was conducted as part of celebrating the GIVE month at Microsoft, an initiative for the employees to contribute their time to support various charitable causes. This year, Vision Empower had the distinct honour of leveraging the dedication of Microsoft’s employees for the benefit of making computational thinking & numeracy skills accessible for children with visual impairment.

The volunteering campaign, which spanned across multiple locations at Microsoft offices throughout the country, saw an influx of new employees eager to understand Vision Empower’s work. They volunteered by creating tactile versions of popular games such as Bingo and Sudoku, specifically designed for children with visual impairments. These games are an integral part of VE’s Project VICT (Computational Thinking for Visually Impaired) which uses the play-way approach to build computational thinking and numeracy skills among visually impaired students.

The volunteering campaign, conducted from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, across various Microsoft offices in different cities, was a testament to the power of collective effort. In Hyderabad, Building 2 and Building 3 witnessed a remarkable turnout, with 102 volunteers creating a total of 48 tactile games. In Pune, 47 dedicated volunteers contributed to the creation of 29 tactile games.

The event also made a significant impact in Bangalore, with 3 locations. Ferns witnessed the participation of 109 volunteers who created 105 tactile games. In Luxor, 27 volunteers collaborated to design 42 tactiles, and in Cosmo, where a team of 3 volunteers created 3 tactiles.

In Noida, volunteers at KP Towers and Sovereign Towers showcased their dedication, with 35 and 15 volunteers respectively contributing to the creation of 12 and 15 tactile games.

The volunteers, driven by the desire to make an impact, actively engaged in the creation of these inclusive games, ensuring that the joy of learning and play isn’t limited by physical challenges.

VE was also celebrating its 6th Foundation Day on 4th October 2023 and the volunteering event provided a platform to showcase the progress made by VE in making stem education accessible for children with visual impairment over the past six years. VE is extremely grateful to Microsoft for providing this opportunity!