Vision Empower’s 4th Anniversary Celebrations

Vision Empower celebrated its fourth Foundation Day on the 4th of October 2021.

(Click on any image to view it larger)

Devidatta and Jyoti steered the ceremony and kept the audience glued to their monitors.

The program began with an invocation by the founder of VE, Vidhya Y and eight year old singer, Vaishnavi. This was followed by a warm welcome address from Sylvia to all the guests and the extended families of VE team members. Supriya then presented the Annual Report which was followed by a short video on the VE activities so far. A hearty appreciation of VE sponsors, volunteers and well-wishers was extended by Meghna.

On this occasion, the VE Educational Co-Ordinators had designed fun games and engagements with teachers across the country. VE is extremely grateful to all the participants of the various events, which included Quiz, Just a Minute Sessions, Talent Demonstrations and Teacher’s sharing their experiences through COVID and a Subodha Quiz. The very well articulated insights of the six teachers who have lived through these challenges was shared with the audience by the hosts. It was also also announced that all the teachers would be awarded gift coupons for their hard work and dedication. Anitha then presented a Short clips of games from the vivacious student participants across the country was shared with everyone and they were individually recognized during the celebrations. Delightfully, all participants were declared winners! The prizes for each one has been dispatched!

Following this was a very engaging panel discussion on “Partnership models – how can industry, government, academia and grass-root implementing organizations/DPOs/schools meaningfully come together to create sustainable impact?” The discussion was led by Prof Amit Prakash, Co-founder of Vision Empower and Convener of the Center for Accessibility in the Global South (CAGS) at IIIT Bangalore. The eminent panellists from the industry and academia included Prof Balakrishna M from IIT Delhi, Ms. Geetha Lakshmikanthan, Executive Chair of Intel Disability and Accessibility, Dr. Krishna Paul, Principal Engineer from Intel, Ms. Shubhrata Das, Program Manager from Wipro Foundation and Dr Swami Manohar, Principal Engineer, Microsoft Research. Vision Empower is sincerely grateful to all the speakers for taking time out after a long day’s work to attend the event and encourage the team by participating in this panel discussion.

This was followed by a beautiful medley of talent demonstration from students from all across the country, ably curated and presented to the audience by Rajeswari and Rishi Vadhana. The enthusiasm of the students, their confidence and their immense talent was a treat for the captivated audience.

The program ended with the entire VE team introducing themselves through a candid rendition of “We Shall Overcome” in multiple local languages from all the states Vision Empower is engaged with. A deep sense of gratitude prevailed as Vidhya Y took the microphone to thank one and all on behalf of Vision Empower.

The program came to an end with the powerful and melodious violin recital by Nibin Matthew.

Event Itinerary:

Looking forward to meet you,
Team Vision Empower