Amway Opportunity Foundation celebrates Louis Braille Day in association with National Association for Blind IDBI Polytechnic

Amway Opportunity Foundation celebrates Louis Braille Day in association with National Association for Blind IDBI Polytechnic

January 9th, 2017: Amway Opportunity Foundation, a registered non-profit organization and the corporate social responsibility arm of Amway India, celebrated Louis Braille Day in association with National Association for Blind (NAB) IDBI Polytechnic, Ambernath. The celebration marks the 208th centenary of Louis Braille, who is credited for the invention of Braille system which enables the visually-impaired to read as well as write.

AOF celebrated Louis Braille day by organizing Braille reading and writing competition for 100 visually impaired students of NAB IDBI Polytechnic. Students were divided in different categories and their basic knowledge on Braille reading & writing was put to test. In addition students also presented 2 short plays and one comic performance.

On the occasion, Mr. Sandeep Prakash, Senior Vice President – West & South, Amway India, said, “We have been working tirelessly towards the welfare of the visually impaired with a firm belief that education and knowledge is the key to the future that create opportunities transcending physical limitations. It is so good to see enthusiastic participation from all the students.”

“The inspiring story of Louis Braille really encourages students to extensively learn Braille and enhance their communication skills. At NAB, we put special emphasis on braille proficiency of each student. The six-dots of Louis Braille are the precious seeds from which intellectual harvest grows. I grateful to AOF for supporting the cause with NAB IDBI.” said Mr. Deepak Biswas Administrative Incharge of NAB IDBI Polytechnic, Ambernath.

Amway Opportunity Foundation will be organizing Louis Braille Day across 10 locations in India including Delhi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Narendrapur, Guwahati, Mumbai, Raipur, Ahmedabad, Madurai & Trivandrum.

About NAB
NAB IDBI was incepted in 1st June 1995, by late Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi and has been providing education and training on General Machine operations to the medium educated visually challenged boys between the age group of 18 to 35 years. This institution is recognized by the Maharashtra Social Welfare department for the supply of white canes.

Amway, under the National Project for the Visually Impaired, has taken various initiatives to support the cause of visually impaired including:-

Amway has supported more than 85,000 visually impaired children with Braille textbooks across 12 States.
Amway has been providing computer training to the visually impaired since 2008, and has set up 15 computer centers across the country. A total of 1000 visually impaired individuals are getting benefited at the Amway supported computer centers.

Amway has also set-up 2 audio libraries in Indore and Madurai; launched a travel and tourism course in Kolkata; set-up a BPO in Madurai, set-up a Braille Library in Bangalore; set-up music academies for the visually impaired in Chandigarh, Raipur and Guwahati.

Amway has supported the program digitizing class XIIth educational material for National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), as well as select graduation and post-graduation educational material for Delhi University, Mumbai University and Hyderabad/EFLU University, which is helping different abled especially visually impaired students across the country.

Amway’s commitment to educate the visually-impaired, led Amway to launch an Android-based application ‘Accessible Reader’, which leverages available text-to-speech engines and makes it convenient for the visually impaired to read digital documents.

Amway India’s CSR initiatives
· Amway India’s CSR initiatives are based on the belief that social responsibility is much more than the incurrence of a cost or a resource on a charitable/ philanthropic act of social benefit. It is an opportunity to bring in social innovation and change. This belief is articulated in Amway’s vision of helping people live better lives. When it comes to commitment to corporate citizenship, Amway India makes a serious and concentrated effort to reach out and help people improve their lives.

· Amway Opportunity Foundation is a registered NGO and a Corporate Social Responsibility arm of Amway India
· Amway India supports a comprehensive CSR programme covering a gamut of initiatives including a water conservation project to improve the ground water level in 7 villages in the Dindigul district located around the manufacturing plant. Amway Opportunity Foundation launched a village health program targeted at 26 villages in the Dindigul district, to provide quality healthcare to the underprivileged. A total of 144 health check-up camps (12 camps in a month) are being conducted within a span of 12 months. The treatment includes general health check-up, select pathological tests and medicines at zero cost to the beneficiaries.

· As a key focus area, AOF has taken various initiatives to support the cause of visually impaired. AOF also supports underprivileged children in education, health and hygiene under a project titled ‘Sunrise’. Under this project, AOF currently supports more than 15 NGOs across the country.