How much do we know our city? How much do we know about the people co-existing with us in the same geographical expanse? How much do we know about the issues gripping our fellow Ahmedavadis? How much are we ready to do for pressing problems affecting the people in our city? To address a very specific but not a small issue – ‘disability’ in the above context a fifteen day campaign was conducted with a commercial radio channel in collaboration with Prabhat Education Foundation. Prabhat works for the cause of disability in the western part of Ahmedabad in areas which most of us would not even have heard of. They serve children and people with special needs by providing rehabilitation facilities (therapy, academic) and aids and appliances. They also address a very important component of counselling and guiding parents, families and local communities of children/people with disability to accept them as a respectable part of the household and the society at large.
The campaign started in the first week of April, the Radio station took the case study of one child as the pivotal story, through which, they then dwelled deeper into the cause of disability. Simultaneously an online fundraising page was set-up to generate funds for Prabhat’s work through the campaign. In four days since the campaign started the organization was able to gather a large chunk of money, which was not only overwhelming but also inspiring. There were several wonderful stories of local citizens stepping up to help raise funds. One such inspiring story was of an 11 year old boy living in a posh locality, who went door to door to collect money for the cause and was able to gather 10,000 rupees! A young boy in his twenties contributed the money he got to treat his friends for his birthday. Many young school and college going children contributed their pocket money and also motivated their friends to do so. There were people who called in and expressed their shock to know that the conditions were so bad for people living in the same city, abject poverty along with disability and considered the campaign as an eye opener and as a motivation for them to do much more for people in difficult situations.
The campaign ended with a whopping collection of funds for the cause of disability, which was not the only reason to celebrate but the response the warmth the concern and the want to do much more for this cause which was echoed from all over the city, people from different walks of life was so much more to take away from this campaign. One of the biggest lessons that we learnt from this campaign is that everyone has a role to play to make the invisible visible and with the reach of mainstream media a sea of change can be foreseen!
