A world without barriers

Started as the brainchild of Anita Iyer about two years back under the name of Avanti,the online forum,after a lot of technical glitches finally was registered under the name of Ekansh. Speaking about her long hard road towards the formation of Ekansh Iyer says,“We had started an online blog wherein members could post in their experiences while dealing with people with special abilities. The response was great but in order to reach out to a wider base,we decided to take it to the next step and get it registered as a website. However,there were a lot of technical glitches owing to which we couldn’t register our domain as Avanti. Eventually we registered it under the name of Ekansh.”

Ekansh has since then diversified. From being just a blog where people met up to share their experiences and views and knowledge about helping people with disabilities,it has diversified to holding various camps for such people to help them come up in life. Speaking more about these camps,Iyer says,“I used to see the children in my colony go to various classes like karate,music,singing,dancing and so on. And it would make me wonder about the helplessness that these people with special needs would encounter. I came upon the idea of conducting such camps for these people,and promptly began to surf the net for likeminded individuals who would be interested in organising these camps for them. Luckily I have discovered that when you set out to do something good,help just pours in from every nook and corner.”

Elaborating about the camps she says,“As of now the karate camp for the children with special needs will begin on April 10. This is however not the first camp that we have organised for these children. We have been involved in such activities since the last two years,as I am of the firm belief that everyone should get an equal footing to play,study learn a new skill or even to fight. Disabilities should not be a cause of hindrance in anyone’s progress. In addition to the karate camp we also plan to organise classes for teaching these children other art forms like music and dancing. The only thing that we need to do is carefully assimilate the teachers who conduct such camps as we need people who have a lot of patience when it comes to teaching children with special abilities.”

In the pipeline are other plans for Ekansh. From getting visually impaired people get a chance to vote in the upcoming elections,to ensuring the fact that all buildings have provisions to enable people with disabilities to move about — the list is long and impressive. Speaking about it Iyer says,“We want the newer generation to understand the needs of these people. Rather than looking at them as objects of sympathy,we want them to be treated as equals and make them a part of their lives. We also aim to diversify our own base and reach out to people,who are affected by autism,cerebral palsy,multiple disabilities and also those who are mentally disabled. On the anvil are insurance schemes for these people,schemes to generate employment for them so that they become self sufficient,start radio jockeying courses for them so that they can showcase their talents on air and have interactive online discussions wherein they can also share their problems and also how they have overcome their disabilities and give other people who are suffering from these problems a reason to get up and fight.”

“At the end of the day all we want is to see everyone on an equal footing,see everyone on a platform where they would be proud of their existence and not feel useless. We hope to make every individual take pride in themselves and give themselves another chance to live a normal and a better life,” she says before concluding.

(More information about Ekansh can be obtained at their website http://www.ekansh.org )