Oshonic Vision for The Blind Welfare Society, (Regd NGO: 2012) is working for
- Empowerment of Divyangjan / Person with Disabilities.
- To strive for equality of opportunity for the blind in their Free Skill development, Education and employment.
- It aims towards providing various Free skill trainings, rehabilitation to the extremely marginalized sections of our society – The visually impaired and Divyangjan
- Empower and support them to stand on their own feet instead of being depended on others.
Oshonic Vision for the blind welfare society has Free Hostel accommodation separate for blind Girls and boys, Free meals facility and free skill development centers where more than 30+ Skills such as designer candle making, sales and marketing, finishing work, Dye making, Door Toran / garlands and Haar making, packing training, Mobility, android mobile training, paper bag making, cotton bag making, sewing machine operating training, etc. All these skills are taught Free of Cost at Oshonic Vision which develops a confidence, self-esteem and positivity in the lives of person with Disabilities.
ABOUT OUR FOUNDER
It was founded by Dr. Bhavesh Bhatia, who himself being 100% blind. He is recipient of the prestigious presidents National Award. 4 times and has received 8 doctorates by various universities. He has been invited as a speaker at 5000+ platforms.
Dr. Bhavesh Bhatia is an entrepreneur | speaker | author | mountaineer | Shayar|.
He joined National Association for the Blind (NAB) and took training in candle making in 1994. He did a 4-month rehabilitation course where he was taught how to make candles for a living. At NAB, Bhavesh got training of 1 single design of plain candle. He wanted to start his own business for candle making but molds were expensive that he could not afford. He started working as massage and acupressure therapist in hotels in Mahabaleshwar. This job helped him save money with which he bought a plain candle mold and 5 kg wax. He started making plain candles and worked as a street vendor in front of Holy Cross church in Mahabaleshwar. He used to set aside Rs 25 per day for next day’s raw material. A special scheme by NAB for blind people helped Bhavesh get a loan of Rs 15000 from Satara Bank. With this money, Dr. Bhatia purchased 15 kg of wax, two dyes and a hand cart.
Dr Bhatia realized that the opportunities for job for Divyangjan were very less. To overcome this, he started giving Free skill training to other Visually Impaired and Divyang persons and supported them to help them stand on their own feet along with providing them free accommodation and free meals facility to those who were into begging on Railway stations / platforms and / or were dependent on their family members even for meals.
Bhavesh got small piece of land from one of his friends, and another friend, who was a builder, donated the land to the NGO, built a small candle making center on that land to support the divyang persons. Even his wife, sold all her jewelry during the construction of the hostel for the blind persons. Currently, there Is a accommodation capacity of 90 people (Separate Hostel for girls and boys) at the Mahabaleshwar center
Till date in last 30 years, more then 9700+ visually impaired and Divyang persons have taken training in various crafts such as candle making, Diyas, aromatic scented candles, torans, gift articles and leading an independent life without depending on others. Today training is provided of more then 10,700 designs of candles and other handcrafted products to the benefiacieries.
This is not a Yagna , but a way to fight against darkness and He believes if he can do it, then why can’t his other fellow blind friends cannot ?