Mitra Jyothi- An Experience
All three of us are students of English Honours in Christ (Deemed to be University) and have completed our first year. We had to work in an NGO for 30 days as a part of our internship and hence chose to do so at Mitra Jyothi. This organisation deals with providing a better social, stable and secure life to the visually challenged people and we came to know how much effort each and every member puts through to make this feat possible. Working at Mitra Jyothi has its own vibe. It felt homely. The work was always whatever we liked and if we did not know what to do, the people there did not hesitate to teach us. We got an experience which was rich not only in social service but also of the typical life at work-working for 6 hours per day, 6 days a week. We got a glimpse into the way these students are educated with the help of Braille books, which they use as regular textbooks or novels and audio books to help them understand things in depth.
As the interns look at the organisation today, it is seen as a huge structural unit which functions with all the hard working staff as the backbone of it. The people in the Braille Press work equally hard as the people in the editing room or the computer labs. Continuous printing of books and textbooks for various purposes goes on in the Press and is always under supervision. The staff in the editing room works on transcriptions and audio books for the visually impaired students not just at the NGO but also for students in a few places in Karnataka. There are many volunteers and interns constantly at work too who do their duty sincerely.
We got first- hand experience of how difficult a life it is to have a visual disability. This encouraged us to be more empathetic in approach towards these students and others like them. Even though they have learnt Braille from a very young age, they have to read full textbooks in order to carry on with their education. Even after all of this, they do not lose hope and instead aim to pursue higher education or aspire to get into higher administration services which show that they have more capability than an average student with no physical or mental challenges. Because of their will to study and learn new things, they have even developed interest in reading a wide variety of books; some of them have even made it their hobby to read. Such confidence, such aims inspire people to do more with their lives and this is beyond appreciation.
We learned many things through the course of the internship, patience being one of them. The book transcriptions required a lot of patience. This was symbolically related to the patience the visually impaired people need to have to study, read or learn something new. After coming here, the interns got to know the true meaning of empathy. How the visually challenged people go through their daily lives was seen by all of us and inspired us to give the very best and work hard to try and make a difference in a few people’s lives by completing the given tasks; they were important for their education. The case studies were intended to increase interaction with the students. They were incredibly soft spoken, down to earth and self-sufficient. Seeing their optimistic attitude, we were quite happy to see that despite the challenges they face every day, they still have a beautiful smile on their faces.