Project Trigger Sirish Agarwal, D P Prakash asha-special focus group

1. Project TriggerSirish Agarwal, D P Prakashasha-special focus group

2. Outline 1. Motivation - asha special team speaks 2. Outlook - India as a whole framework 3. Mission - mainstream the disabled 4. 5 Zonal Projects - connected action 5. Roadmap to UQE India

3. Motivation "Disabled and women in India are treated worse than animals" Jagdish Chander, Asha Syracuse "98% of those who are disabled are left without education or jobs in India" Prof Vileen Shah, Social Science Dept, Harold Washington College, Chicago Jagdish & Vileen are the first visually impaired volunteers of India

4. Motivation "Disability is not a disease to be cured nor a problem to be fixed, Rather, it is a difference; that needs to be accepted and accommodated as a part of diversity in any diverse and heterogeneous society. Don't mourn for me: to me, my blindness is hardly a problem. It is nothing more than a situation of some one living in New York City without a car. The real problem is the negative social attitude, and the consequent deprivation of opportunities needed for the development of my personality. I hardly have a great desire to regain my eye sight. But the real desire is to be accepted as a productive, participative and dignified member of the society while my blindness being accepted as one of the important characteristic of my personality." Jagdish Chander, Syracuse "Look back to enlighten your present and look ahead to brighten your future" Prof Vileen Shah, Chicago

5. Motivation "By the end of 2003, support at least 1 disability specific project or activity in each state” Guha Balasubramaniam, Cincinnatti "Disabled Persons should be made assets for society rather than being liabilities" T.H. Joy, Manipur "Create awareness to work long term at a sustained pace for the rights and participation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of society" Jayshree Janardhan, Seattle “Networking these individuals and organizations to me is a big step that was achieved by launching the Trigger project in the 5 different parts of India simultaneously - one of the primary problems faced in India today is that although there are so many NGOs doing a lot of good work, there is very little information-sharing, and very little networking among them” Minali Balaram, Colorado

6. Motivation "Raise the access to available resources and awareness of disability issues leading to inclusion of every disabled person in the mainstream community" Sirish Agarwal, Washington, DC "We can and ought to remove the hurdles so that underprivileged disabled children, one of the most marginalized constituent of our society, can live more fuller and richer lives" Raj Chauhan, Seattle "These projects are all about "Empowerment" of people with disabilities, to help this population to live withdignity, respect and independence. A project like Asha Trigger covering all zones in the country will create more awareness and thereby involvement from others to participate in such activities." , Venkat Subramanian, Silicon Valley "The long journey towards UQE would bear great meaning if it begins with salvation for disabled children, impaired girls in particular" D P Prakash, Vermont

7. Outlook "Begin with the End in Mind" First of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey The end is UQE Every child in every one of 700,000 villages in India to have access to Quality Education View problem of India as a whole Emphasis on India-wide connected action "Has Asha ever triggered a self sustaining solution?" Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIT Madras

8. Mission To trigger a chain reaction that brings large scale socio-economic change for children with disabilities in India

9. 5 Zonal Projects North (Uttar Pradesh) Helpline Providing information and counseling for people with disabilities Partner - ASTHA East (Manipur, Sikkim) Tribal Empowerment Educating tribal children, especially those with disabilities Partners – Asha India, JNMIH South (Tamil Nadu) Lead to Light Producing and circulating multilingual braille magazines School & hostel for Mentally, Physically impaired Partners – Vidya Vriksha, Sebama Foundation West (Rajasthan, Maharashtra) Look ahead Providing equipment and software for job-oriented computer training Partners – Drishti Viklang Sangh, Kamla Mehta School for blind girls Centre (Madhya Pradesh) Sambhavna Facilitating a survey of survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster Partner - Sambhavna

10. UQE Strategy for Blind Children 5. Policy Changes (Mainstreaming blind students) 4. Resource Centers in each district (helpline, integrated schools, vocational training) 3. PC Network (Engineering colleges, Multi Lingual Editor, JAWS) 2. Braille Embosser Network (Magazines, textbooks, library) 1. Braille Literacy cubes (Students, volunteers, teachers)

11. Manipur – Tribal Empowerment

12. School Construction Site

13. Roadmap to UQE in India 1. Declare and communicate UQE in India as a top national priority. 2. Publish a roadmap to UQE with measurable milestones and a deadline (2047 is suggested based on data) 3. Build capacity of partnering organizations already engaged in community development. 4. Drive projects and innovate wherever necessary. 5. Define metrics of progress (identify tangible and intangible components to socio-economic progress) 6. Establish decentralised but coordinated zonal structures in India 7. Evolve and install Asha internal processes that support the long term objective. 8. Facilitate UQE in the smaller Indian states like Sikkim, Manipur early on (generate early results, earn credibility, infect with excitement, lead with momentum.) 9. Invite all partnering organizations to express support to the UQE mission and collaborate. 10. To leverage, impact children segment-wise, offering high quality, deep solutions (eg. Disabled, sex worker, street, laborers, rural, tribal, diseased) 11. Measure progress of Indo people to target on every August 15th (move with sense of urgency, take over the mind share from depressing gloom-doom news) 12. Communicate required run-rate effectively, as one team with one voice, until UQE mission is achieved through diverse media – magazines,online,TV, radio-encourage India-wide teamwork.