Table top calendars from students of Kerala’s blind school will light up your 2021!

Students of Kottayam blind school are working on table top calendars for 2021 to raise funds for right causes. With support from a group of experienced and talented volunteers, the team hopes to sell calendars that promotes importance of mental health awareness.

Students from the Government High School for the Blind at Kottayam in Kerala are making some spectacular table top calendars for the year 2021. Their art-works which are done with the help of volunteers will be used for calendars. A group of youngsters who are initiating this says that they are thrilled from the response they have gotten over past few years for all their projects. That is what prompted them to take it to this year as well. The calendars are all set to be launched soon and promotes awareness about mental health.

An interesting initiative

Ananthu Vasudev, one of the project coordinators recollects that he along with a few others have been working with blind students for past few years. As each year passes, they get relentless support. In 2012, they started work along with a few NGO’s. Then teachers, coordinators and alumni of the school started initiating projects of which kids became an integral part. Ananthu says a strong support team is what makes their works a success. Most of their initiatives are fund raisers for students of the school itself.

“Four years back, father of one of our students passed away. He only had his mother to support him and she did not have a job either. So we all decided to come together to build a house for the child. All the 40 students of the school painted some lovely pictures with the help of volunteers and we sold them. The response was overwhelming. We collected more funds than what was expected”, says Ananthu.

Greeting cards and paintings are sold every year to a happy clientele. Last year, funds were gathered to support another student.

This year, 12 different paintings by 12 students have already been done. So with the help of a designer, page layouts are done and paintings are added. “Last year over 500 calendars were sold to a Malayali association in the USA. This year too, we are expecting a good response”, says Ananthu.

Every child will be assigned with a volunteer who will help them with colors. Student-volunteer relationship is yet another criteria to their success. The team also organizes various events for kids, like visiting parks and so on which they claim has helped to increase self-confidence of blind students.

Support for right cause

This year, the team has introduced a mental health awareness program called ‘Be light, be a light’. So they are including paintings related to the topic in the calendar, an interesting initiative which will include the client as well. Each week will have some task that supports mental health awareness. They are using social media to promote the cause.

“Like for instance, those who brought the calendar are asked to join our school kids on last week of December 2021. Along with promoting mental health awareness, we hope it will engage the client as well”, says Ananthu.

“We have been working on different campaigns for students over past couple of years. There are partially and fully blind kids at the school. So the idea was to introduce painting to the kids and share knowledge too. Such activities helps them to overcome their fear and teaches life skills. I have seen the change myself”, says Teena Kondody, one of the volunteers.

Pre-booking for the calendar have already started. To purchase them, you can call to +91 99477-90008.

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• Young disability advocates voice their stories to spread awareness in this 2021 calendar