Devaraje Gowda - Vegetable-seller

Devarje Gowda from Hassan District is 40 years old and has been totally blind since birth. Devaraje Gowda is married and has one daughter. He was unemployed with no means to support his family.

NAB identified Devarje Gowda and gave him training in daily living, mobility and orientation skills. He has undergone Mobility Training at NAB, JBN, Bangalore. He has been rehabilitated in self-employment and given training in selling vegetables. With the support of the local community, our field worker has helped him by providing him with bus pass, railway concession and handicapped allowance. Now, he is a vegetable vendor and earns approximately about Rs. 200 to 300 per day.

Kenge Gowda - Cattle - rearer

Kenge Gowda, from Hassan District is 45 years old and has been totally blind since birth. Kenge Gowda is married and lives with his wife, son and a daughter but he had no means to support his family.

He was identified by NAB and given training in daily living, mobility and orientation skills. He has been rehabilitated in cattle rearing and given training in rearing cattle. With the support of the local community, our field worker has helped him in getting bus pass, railway concession and handicapped allowance.

Today Kenge Gowda earns Rs. 200 to 250/- per day, by selling 10 litres of milk to the nearby milk diary.

Amutha - Goat-rearer

Forty seven year old Amrutha from Hassan district was born visually impaired. She is married and has two children.

NAB identified Amrutha and gave her training in mobility and orientation skills. She has also been rehabilitated through training in goat rearing.

With the support of the local community, our field worker helped her in availing benefits like bus pass, railway concession and handicapped allowance.

Now, she is an earning member and leads a good and happy life with her family.

Komala - Village Rehabilitation Worker

Komala is 24 years and has been visually impaired since birth. She has a sister who is totally blind and a brother.

She was identified by NAB and given training in mobility and orientation skills. She is now working as a Village Rehabilitation Worker (VRW) employed by NAB.


She earns about Rs.2000/- per month and gets a monthly pension of about Rs.1200. Totally, she earns Rupees 3,200. She also gets government benefits like bus pass and railway concession. She is now able to take care of her family well and is happy.

Samreen - Student

Twelve year old Samreen was born completely blind and lives with her parents, one sister and one brother.

NAB gave Samreen training in mobility and orientation skills and helped her utilize facilities like bus pass, railway concession & handicapped allowance.Along with the daily living skills and mobility training given by our project facilitator, she has also been counselled in independent skills.She is now all set to start school from the next academic year.

Manjamma - Sheep-rearer

Manjamma is 32 years old and has been totally blind from birth. Manjamma lives with her parents.

NAB identified Manjamma as a potential candidate and gave her training in mobility and orientation skills. Economically she has been rehabilitated in sheep rearing.


NAB also helped her utilize facilities like bus pass, railway concession and handicapped allowance.

The community has supported her by giving her sheep to earn her living.

Manjamma - Sheep - seller

Manjamma is 67 years old and was born blind.

She is a widow who lives alone. She was trained in mobility and orientation skills by NAB and rehabilitated through sheep-rearing.

She sells the sheep and earns about 25,000 per year. She also avails of facilities like bus pass, railway concession and handicapped allowance.

Today she manages her household work and lives independently.

Prakash - Petty Shop Trader

Prakash is 47 years old and has been totally blind since birth. He is married with a wife and a child. National Association for the blind identified Prakash and gave him training in daily living, mobility and orientation skills.

He was also given a bank loan and today he is running his own petty shop. He also does re-canning work. With the support of the local community, our field worker helped him get bus pass, railway concession and handicapped allowance. Being an earning member, he is now leading a good and happy life with his family.

A Banker with a Difference

Renum Kacker was born partially blind to Radhey Krishna Tandon and Sheela Rani Tandon in 1963. At the age of 52, she lost her eye sight completely due to Glaucoma. But she has been working as a Telephone Operator since 1981 and is today working for Bank of Baroda at Bereily, Uttar Pradesh.


Renum's family is a small and happy family consisting of her husband Anil Kumar Kacker, daughter Rashi Kacker and her son Sanchit, who works for HDFC bank, Bangalore. The family supports her completely.

But for Renum it has still been a tough journey. Her challenges after her complete vision loss were many: She could not go to another room without anybody's help, could not recognize currency notes, could not cook as before, could not recognize or select favourite clothes/dresses and she was unable to function well.

She finally got to know about NAB through an internet search. Low on confidence and motivation, she decided to join the computer and mobility training course at the NAB.

She learnt keyboard orientation, Jaws Software command, MS Word, MS Excel, internet usage and e-mail communications. In the mobility training course, she learnt to walk independently and acquired daily living skills (personal grooming- sighted guided techniques, cane skills) and ILC (Independent Living skills).

Today, with the training which Renum has undergone at NAB-KB, she is independent in her mobility and orientation skills. She also has basic computer skills and can send and receive emails as well as any other sighted person.

From despair to hope

Choudappa Rangappa Kundargi has had an unusually tough journey through his young life. 33 year old Born to Lt.Rangappa and Lt. Sona Bai in 1985 at Hubli, with normal eye sight he lead a normal life running his own business at the HP Gas Sub-agency in Havery district, Shiggaon, near Hubli. But at the age of 31, he was seized by a severe headache and vomiting sensation. He was hospitalized and after 5 days, he was diagnosed with brain thrombosis. Due to this he lost his eye sight. He was shifted to a hospital in Hubli where he was in ventilation for three months and another four months in the Intensive care unit. He had completely lost his consciousness and was in coma nearly for 3 months. After recovering consciousness, he was discharged though by then his nervous system had failed and he had no eye sight or sensation in his right hand. He stayed with his brother at Shiggaon after he lost his eye sight.

Choudappa's life had changed drastically. He could not walk alone, could not do anything independently and was obviously feeling very hopeless. It was then that he came across NAB through a Google search.

He came NAB-KB to get training in mobility and computer skills for one month and four months respectively. He learnt keyboard orientation, Jaws software commands, MS Word, MS Excel, internet usage and e-mail communications.

Through the mobility training course he learnt to walk independently, besides daily living skills (personal grooming -sighted guided techniques, cane skills) and ILC (Independent Living skills).

Today he can perform basic functions on the computer, his skills being on par with any sighted person. This shows the long distance he has travelled.