Bangalore:
Daan Utaav - earlier known as the Joy of Giving week - is celebrated each year in India to encourage the spirit of sharing and generosity. In Bangalore, one such event was organised by the NGO Giftabled, which involved teaching a sport which usually requires excellent sight to visually impaired students.
Archery is a sport of precision, focus and vision. As part of Daan Utsav, archery coaches from Mysore travelled to Bangalore to teach the skills of archery to a group of visually impaired youngsters who certainly proved that vision comes in different forms.
Pratthana of Giftabled Foundation said, "We want to change the perceptions of disability. Today's event is part of our life skills development where we want to teach archery to visually impaired students and increase their confidence level."
A bell was rung near the target for the students to figure out where they should aim.
Kavitha, who hit the target even though she could not see it, said, "I am very excited. When I was studying about Mahabharatha I had a dream to try this once and today I got opportunity to learn this. My coach Manjunath came all the way from Mysore to reach us. I am so excited, I reached the target! I would like to continue in future."
Another visually-impaired boy, Shankar, said, "I tried five or six times and reached the target.
Even though I had multiple disability, my trainer taught me very well."
And for the organisers, it was the joy of helping to develop greater confidence in these eager students.
Vinay, Joint Secretary of IMAS, the group which taught the youngsters archery said, "We wanted to tell the visually impaired children - nothing is impossible. It they can hit the target when they are visually impaired, they can achieve anything in life."