In a unique partnership between a public university and a private charity, University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Help The Blind Foundation (HTBF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in August 2022 to start Education, Mobility and Employability Training (EMET) for students with visual disabilities. Enable India, Bengaluru — a premier training institute specialised in digital literacy and corporate recruitment for visually impaired individuals — was roped in to be the technology partner for the execution of the EMET program at UoH. After working out the nitty-gritties for a smooth start, all the 3 partners: University of Hyderabad, Help the Blind Foundation and Enable India came together on 12 October 2023 to formally launch the training program here at the School of Humanities Auditorium.
Prof. Ramaswamy Shamanna (the chairperson Empowered Committee for Differently Abled Persons (ECDAP), UoH), Shri; Shivaji Rao (The Managing Trustee, HTBF), SMT; Deepa Krishna Murthy (trustee of the HTBF), Mr. Moses Chowdhary (the Executive Director [Urban Livelihood Mission] at Enable India, and Ms. Ambika Sitaram (Senior Project Officer [trainings] at HTBF participated in the formal launch of EMET. Shri; N. Annavaram (Member, ECDAP) presided over the inaugural function. The event saw the enthusiastic participation of differently abled students and scholars studying at UoH.
Following the formal inauguration of the EMET, the training team from Enable India and HTBF conducted a two-day awareness and initial instructional modular training on 13th and 14th October. As part of this two-day event, a senior retired director from the Microsoft and a couple of young visually impaired employees working for Apple interacted with the students of UoH. Ms. Jincy from Enable India and Ms. Ambika Sitaram from HTBF coordinated the event from the partnering organisations, while Shri N. Annavaram took the lead as a facilitator from the ECDAP, UoH.