By Tricitynews Reporter
Chandigarh 11th
November:- Boniface Prabhu, Padam Shri awardee,
India’s No. 1 wheelchair tennis player for years and the country’s first ever
Paralympic medal winner is on a mission.
He is leading the 3,500 KM Thums Up VEER Kashmir to
Kanyakumari (K2K) road expedition, to create awareness and sensitize people to the cause
of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). During a stopover at Chandigarh, he addressed
a gathering at GRIID (Government Rehabilitation Institute for Intellectual
Disabilities) and taught more than 200 community members, the A, B, C of sign
language. B.Ed students or those of Class 6, this was a unique occasion when
they were together in the same class, learning their first lessons of a new
language, together.
The ThumsUp VEER Kashmir to
Kanyakumari (K2K) road expedition, was flagged off on November 9, from
Jammu and Kashmir. Over the next one
month, Boniface is participating in more than 50 events hosted and facilitated
by India’s largest selling soft drink brand – Thums Up jointly with the
American India Foundation a leading NGO. Boniface as the lead of the Thums Up
VEER K2K expedition will meet thousands of people, students, government
officers, civil society workers and sensitize them on various aspects and
requirements of PWDs. He also aims to help train nearly 10,000 people in sign
language and host awareness programs for them.
This engagement program and sign language training session was
organized by Salaam Zindagi, a charitable trust which works with stakeholders
to create a safe, secure, protected and healthy environment, jointly with AIESEC
India – world’s leading youth organization. The session witnessed participation
from students, PWDs, NGOs and B.Ed applicants of Punjab University who are doing
special courses on youth.
Speaking on the occasion, Amrinder
Singh Founder & CEO Salaam Zindagi Charitable Trust, India, said that we have
the track record of never refusing a donation, even if it is Rs. 1. We also
have a record of never having taken any funds from the government to do our
work. So when Boniface Prabhu came calling upon us as a part of the Thums Up
VEER K2K road expedition for PWDs, we thought that his words and his training
session in sign language would be one of the biggest donations that we will
ever get. He is indebted to Boniface and to Thums Up for undertaking this
mission. We support Boniface Prabhufor this noble initiative and hopeful about
the positive change this mission will bring to the lives of PWDs in the country.
Ashish Sethi, CEO, Kandhari
Beverages Pvt Ltd, said that Thums Up along with partners American India
Foundation and Being Human already run the VEER campaign, which trains PWDs to
make them employable. We are now focusing on the softer aspects that help
integrate PWDs into the mainstream, guided by govt’s Accessible India campaign.
We are glad that Boniface is leading ThumsUp VEER K2K and he can’t think of a
better place and time to start this journey. He also cannot think of a more
appropriate brand than Thums Up to undertake this mission. Thums Up believes
that everyone has the potential within, to achieve everything they deserve and
this is best articulated by its tagline Main Hoon Toofani. He looks forward to
working with Boniface and reviewing the outcomes of this expedition.
Elaborating on the Thums Up VEER K2K
road expedition, Boniface Prabhu said that while we are all focused on the core issues of technology,
infrastructure, manufacturing etc, he believes that we cannot make the India of
our dreams if we do not leverage the skills and the potential of the PWDs.
While on one hand, we need to mainstream the PWDs and create opportunities for
them, on the other we also need to be sensitive to their unique requirements.
Being a quadriplegic myself, the onus was on him to take this step forward. He
is hoping that this expedition will help set the ground for some meaningful
interventions in this space. Let us make
an Accessible India, as we make our India.
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