Mangaluru: If public participation and awareness of a cause were anything to go by, BMW-Guiding Stars 2014 was a remarkably meaningful way to observe world disability day. The day belonged to the special children from the Roman and Catherine School for the Blind and SDM Mangala Jyothi School of Integrated Learning. ‘I don’t see, but I can Lead; I don’t speak, but I can Guide’ was the feeling within each special child. Every participant too felt that the experience was enriching –a spirit of competitiveness mixed with the flavor of true inclusivity.
How was this achieved?
The route map for the treasure hunt was only given in braille, a format readable only by the visually challenged, who formed a part of every team. Each team could progress only after the driver and visually challenged child coordinated well enough to decipher the clues. In addition to this, the participants were surprised at certain points in the treasure hunt, to see speech and hearing challenged children enacting a certain personality or object. The challenge then turned out to be one of communicating through a language of signs in order to decipher the clue.
Mr.J.R.Lobo(MLA, Mangalore South) flagged off the event at the BMW showroom, Padil. In an address to the gathering, he congratulated the Mangalore Coastal Round table 190 for their contribution in the field of free public education. He further went on to mention the MLA development fund of 40 lakh that was budgeted for 17 schools and invited the Round Table to assist both in finance and execution of projects that were of immediate value.
Mr. RajappaWaradh, GM-in-charge, BMW Navnit Motors, Mangalore conveyed his pleasure to associate with the event and also went on to further affirm BMW’s commitment to the cause of free public education.
Chairman of MCRT190, Jairaj Shetty, welcomed the gathering with a note on the event and its success in its fifth year. He further described the impact and awareness that this event was having on the community.
Neil Rodrigues, Press and publicity convenor, MCRT190 made a presentation to the gathering about the total of 17 lakh Rs. worth of investment that was directed towards a government school that MCRT190 has adopted – The Govt. Higher Primary School, Mannagudda, Mangalore. He explained the infrastructure improvements like the science lab and the audio-visual room and also touched upon the upcoming projects like the computer lab creation at the school. He especially highlighted the offer of a sponsor – Mahesh PU College, Mangalore – to take free and voluntary English classes to the students of the same school.
Miss Reema Cardoza, an accomplished personality and an award winning champion of causes towards the specially-abled also gave some words of advice andf encouragement to the participants from the special categories.
Winners of the event:
1. First Place: Anil Bansal with navigator (visually challenged) Dikshith
2. Runners Up: Naveen Cardoza with navigators (visually challenged) Rohan Nayak and Meghana
3. Second Runner’s Up: Lester D’Souza with navigator (visually challenged) Ameena
The end point also had a lot of excitement with a voluntary band (employees from the Mangalore office of IT giant Infosys Ltd) playing melodies that many from the gathering including the visually challenged children chimed in.Every participating team was given a framed photograph of their flag-off memento for their participation.
