Congratulations team! May I have the email / phone number of Swati Sexenna? It is urgent and important!
Warmly Preeti Preeti Monga - Chief Executive Officer Inspiring INCLUSION! Fostering DIGNITY! Mobile : 91 9871701646 Landline : 011 22781446 E-mail : preeti.mo...@silver-linings.org Website : www.silver-linings.org Connect With Us : -----Original Message----- From: SayEverything [mailto:sayeverything-boun...@sayeverything.org] On Behalf Of Amit Bhatt Sent: Monday, February 09, 2015 12:07 PM To: sayeverything Cc: fusion-silver-linings; radioudaan; accessindia Subject: [SayEverything] They don't see, but they believe: Meet the special radio jockeys of Udaan, India Today News! They don't see, but they believe: Meet the special radio jockeys of Udaan Ashwin Ahmad | New Delhi, February 8, 2015 | UPDATED 10:38 IST brave group of young men and women are proving this adage wrong. Despite having lost their sight, these people are giving hope to other blind people across the country, and across the world, through a unique initiative called Radio Udaan. An internet radio station started in February 2014, Radio Udaan has over 30 visually-impaired RJs who conduct shows, primarily for the blind community. According to Minal Singhvi, station director of Radio Udaan, "Our listeners today range from 10,000-15,000. We deal with a variety of topics from sports to quizzes to Bollywood. We also deal with a number of practical concerns such as employment for the visually impaired; challenges a blindsighted married couple may face and dealing with problems that someone who has lost his sight may be going through." The station breaks many stereotypes. Many of the RJs, who currently work on a voluntary basis, are employed with sectors such as IT, human resources, management and creative writing. Amit Bhatt, who does a show on Radio Udaan, has proven nothing is impossible. An IT professional, Amit has also worked with All India Radio as their sports correspondent in 2002, where he did a show called Khel Siva. When asked how he managed this Bhatt says, "This is exactly what they asked me." When pressed he says: "There is nothing wrong with my hearing. I used to listen to audio interviews of sportstars and present my show." Amit adds that he did his own share of reporting while interviewing personalities such as former Test umpire S.K. Bansal. "I used an old fashioned tape recorder and I took notes writing in the Braille script. But I realised that I could not do journalism long term and so I turned to IT." The first question that strikes anyone is that how could anyone from the visually-impaired community be able to handle computers? Divya Sharma, another RJ from Radio Udaan explains: "We (the RJs) use JAWS, a software program to ensure that everything that is written is spoken. For my phone there is a 'talk back' facility so one can speak and work normally." Divya is currently pursuing her Masters in English from Punjab University. She has two weekly shows on Radio Udaan - Inspirational Wings and Mystery of 26. In her spare time, she is a poet, freelance writer, guitarist and singer. "My show Inspirational Wings is about building courage and positivity, while my other show is about learning English, something which many of my listeners have appreciated," she says. There are challenges though. Singhvi admits that being a nonprofit organisation ensures that some RJs drop out due to lack of remuneration. This certainly was the case with Swati Saxena. Working as an HR manager after completing her MBA in Human Resources Management from TISS, Mumbai, Swati admits that her show called Sports Galaxy, which she did with her sister Shubhra, changed her life immensely. "The day I got associated with Radio Udaan (in June 2014), my Facebook post got the maximum number of likes so far. Some people thought I had given up my HR job to be an RJ," she laughs. The success of Radio Udaan has not only changed lives but also attitudes. As Singhvi reveals, plans are on to raise funds amid the visuallyimpaired community to monetise Radio Udaan there is a plan to create other media such as a magazine for their visually-impaired listeners. As she says, "We want to show everyone that the visually impaired have the same concerns as anyone else. If encouraged, they can educate themselves, take jobs and do everything that everyone else can." Thanks in part to Radio Udaan that many of them are already doing so. Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/radio-udaan-sightless-radio-jockey/1/4176 45.html Thanks, Amit Bhatt If any time you wish to be unsubscribed from our Mailing List, please send a message to sayeverything-requ...@sayeverything.org with the subject unsubscribe keeping the message body blank. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://sayeverything.org/mailman/listinfo/sayeverything_sayeverything.org Website: http://www.sayeverything.org Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. 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