Vision-Aid launched  its first center 15 years ago. This center has become the flagship for Vision-Aid efforts all over India. Ramakrishna and Revathy Raju had opportunity to visit Vizag to meet with the Vision-Aid family there to celebrate many major milestones. There were many things to celebrate in Vizag this year, the launch of Vision-Aid's first residential scholarship program, the launch of Vision-aid's extension center and much more.

The year 2020 started with a bang from Vision-Aid. A new Vision-Aid Center in Pune India was announced by Ramakrishna and Revathy Raju while they were visiting Pune. Pune, called “The Queen of the Deccan” is one of the major cities in the state of Maharashtra, India. It is a comparatively smaller sized city having a pleasant vibe, and less daunting than bigger tier 1 metros like Chennai and Bangalore. The weather is mild and the city has many interesting historic landmarks. Ram and Revathy visited Pune with the main purpose of identifying a location for a new Vision-Aid center . This center will serve the needs of not only the Punekars, as residents of Pune are known, but all of the surrounding regions in Western Maharashtra. 

In any non profit, the quantitative impact made is important i.e. evaluating how many people are served, how much it costs, etc. Equally important, or perhaps more inspiring on a personal level,  are the stories of the individuals behind the numbers. In Bangalore, Vision-Aid founds Ramakrishna and Revathy Raju had the opportunity to learn about some of these stories. They met with many of Vision-Aid's visually impaired  students, along with interns and staff. The meeting was in a lovely setting, a picnic at Cubbon park. Ram and Revathy got to know each of them, a little better as inspiring individuals that they are and not just another name in a list.

Vision-Aid founder Revathy and Ramakrishna Raju are on their annual visit to the various Vision-Aid Centers in India. Their first stop was Vision-Aid's Center at Sankara Netralaya in Chennai. This relatively new center which was just inaugurated a year ago during their last visit, has taken off very well. They had the wonderful opportunity to meet with the staff and discuss ongoing work and new , upcoming initiatives. 

Aditi Shah, one of Vision-Aid's former student in the programming course, graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a Masters degree in Computer Science and Cyber Security. Beyond being a former student of Vision-Aid, she has many connections with Vision-Aid family. Sonal Patel , her mentor at Vision-Aid continues to be Aditi's mentor even today. Prof Santosh Vempala of Georgia Tech, who serves on the board of Vision-Aid has also been her mentor and guide there for the past 1.5 years. He and his family have been with Aditi on her journey with their love and support. 

Vision-Aid is thrilled to annonce the establishment of Vision-Aid National Resource Center in Delhi. This was made possible by Boston Natives Ram and Meetu Gupta. This resource center will be fully functional by January 2020. The resource center will serve the visually impaired population of Delhi and surrounding area.  The center will provide a comprehensive range of services and devices for the visually impaired and will aim to enable, educate and empower the visually impaired in the area.

Every year, I-Stem, IIIT Bangalore, Vision Aid, Vision Empower and XRCVC bring participants with and without disabilities to code/hack on high-impact projects and learn from each other. With over 150 participants, 7 universities and 11 corporates having participated in the two sessions of the hackathon in 2018 and 2019. Vision-Aid is excited to extend invitation on behalf of Inclusive Stem Confluence 2020 organizing team. The Inclusive Stem Confluence 2020 Hackathon comes to you in an expanded format. The event is divided into three tracks.

Vision-Aid hosted a panel of experts on Accessibility Testing at the Boston Accessibility Conference, an annual event that attract leaders from many fields who are interested in supporting accessibility, universal design and making the digital world a more universal place for persons of all abilities.

2019’s conference was held on Saturday November 2^nd at the Fidelity Offices in downtown Boston. Vision-Aid co-sponsored the conference and hosted a keynote panel on “Accessible Accessibility Testing” and an information session on “Using technology to create wearable navigational devices for the blind”.

Pallavi Deshpande is an AIF Clinton Fellow. Her AIF fellowship took her to Vision-Aid's center at Vizag. During her visit she was able to serve and observe the Vision-Aid's new scholars’ program that was piloted this year which prepares young men and women from rural areas through a residential, intensive 6-month skills program for workplace readiness.

Its that time of the year again when fall is in the air, trees in New England are bright and beautiful, India is respledant for Diwali and the anticipation of holidays and celebration is around the corner. Vision-Aid wishes all it's well wishers a happy start of holiday season. 

In 2018, Vision-Aid formed a partnership with Aravind Eye Hospitals in Madurai. In January of 2019 the Vision-Aid resource center was formally launched at Aravind Hospital. Some great work has since been done at the resource center since then. Here are some hightlights of the latest strides made at the center.