ABOUT US

Welcome to Valsad National Association for the Blind (NAB), Gujarat.

Our mission is to provide high standard welfare, support, food, education, vocational training and accommodation to people that are blind and physically handicapped so as to promote their independence, dignity and quality of life. We provide practical help to the visually and physically challenged children and adults living in and around Valsad, Gujarat.

More projects are already in place and we are planning exciting new services to give visually and physically impaired people the chance to do what they want and opportunities to gain confidence and learn the 21st century skills.

Valsad National Association for the Blind is a a not for profit, non government organisation providing a range of services to people that are blind and physically challenged in and around Valsad, Gujrat (India). We are an innovative leader in serving children & adults with visual & physical disability. Strong leadership from both our paid volunteers and our Board of Trustees has created a legacy of education and discovery of several talents. We are always questioning how to best serve our students in the classroom, community & around the nation. NAB Valsad is a unique & exciting place but don’t take our word for it, come see what happens every day in our campus.

Valsad NAB is one of the Leading District Blind Associations in Gujarat state established in the year 1984. It all began in the year 1984 when few blind students in Valsad area got together and started an office at Shri. Ramubhai K. Patel's house (The current Honorary General Secretary of NAB Valsad). Back then Shri. Ramubhai Patel was working for a bank as a telephone operator. The NAB Valsad project began in 1984 when we registered as a charity trust and began vocational training for the blind. Mr. Ramubhai K. Patel lost his eyesight at a very young age and has underwent a lot of struggles in life; however, he learnt and accepted to lead his life with the disability. He started this trust with an intent to reform the lives of the visually challenged and disabled people in and around Valsad, Gujrat.

Dr. Vimlabhen S. Lalbhai did her fellowship at Royal College of surgery from London. She does a lot of social work. Her donations helped us raise the funds to build our main building where today we have the boys hostel. In 2006, with the help of ASHA for Education USA we raised funds to build the girls hostel building. They also helped us in funding for the technical up gradation of our institute. With the donations that we received from ASHA for Education U.S.A we established the Computer Lab, Audio Lab and Braille Library for the disabled students.

Our organization has a wide spectrum of activities to assist the blind in and around Valsad district. Currently we have accommodated around 190-200 students in our institute. Also, our administrative staff strength is 30. Out of these 30, 5 of them are cooks. They take care of the cafeteria as well. Meals are served to our students 3 times a day. We also support blind kids to go to college and even acquire advanced degrees. For those students who cannot afford it, we give them accommodation and we also pay for their fees and books. All this is funded from the donations that we receive from kind hearted individuals and organizations. The funding from the Ministry varies every year. Sometimes we don't get any funds from them due to government's budget cutbacks. So we have no choice but to heavily depend on the donations that we receive from various donors in bits and pieces, yet with god's grace we've been able to continue our work of serving the disabled people without any major setbacks all these years. We don't charge our students any fees for the accommodation, food or for books and stationery. We provide education to disabled students as well as adults. This includes reading, writing, arithmetic, science, geography and other subjects. We provide food, accommodation, hostel & lodging facilities to those students who cannot afford to live on their own or live too far away in remote forest areas/villages and are unable to access basic needs.

We provide vocational training in telephone operation, typing, computers, carpentry, weaving, wicker, chair caning, file/folder making, office work and other jobs that can be done by someone who is visually impaired. We provide assistance to and fro and cover costs for doctor visits, initial assessments, visual care, checkups and medicines. We assist in getting visually & physically impaired jobs in the community. We also venture out into the city & village population in the Valsad district and find people who are visually impaired and get them to our institute to see if they can be helped with lenses and or other eye correctional methods. They are then tested for possible infections or problems with the eyes and then assisted in handling each case.

We teach our students how to clean, groom and get dressed. We also teach them cooking, cleaning and how to go to the market and buy food and other items. Our students are also taught to read braille, how to use computers, how to use speech synthesizer, typewriters, telephones, calculators etc. We send our students to normal schools to integrate them with the rest of the students in the community. This helps in getting rid of the fear in the disabled students that comes from remote villages where they are neglected and ignored.

Our staff here at Valsad NAB help the children to walk them to the bathroom, to the school, play during recess with sighted children etc. Children here are given access to listen to audio cassettes of programs, literature books; printed both in sighted and Braille version. Students also learn to play chess, checkers and other games with sighted children or with each other. We have a separate boys and girls hostel that provide disabled students accommodation in separate buildings. Boys hostel has a capacity to accommodate around 150 disabled boys and girls hostel can accommodate around 60 disabled girls. We also have a playground in between the two hostels where students play cricket and other sports during their free time. Blind children play cricket with special ball that makes a sound as it moves through the air or bounces. They listen to cricket matches with sighted people and enjoy the game too.

Our staff teach blind students basic etiquettes, eating etiquettes etc. They also teach them how to peel potatoes, onions etc. Students also learn how to prepare dough for roties (ie. Indian bread). Our team also work to help the blind integrate into the local community to overcome their fear of interacting with sighted people and overcome the obstacles of disability.

NAB Valsad has improved lives of many disabled people through Vocational training, Medical assistance, Food & Accommodation, Social support, Education, Recreational activities and many other programs that support the student's dignity, independence and quality of life.

Managing Committee
Office Bearers
:
  
President
:
 Shri. S. M. Shinde
Vice Presidents
:
 Smt. Anupama R. Patel, Shri. Anil Panchal
General Secretary
:
 Shri. Rambhai K. Patel
Joint Secretaries
:
 Smt. Kamlaben R. Patel, Shri.. Kamlesh Patel
Treasurer
:
 Shri. Dhansuk Surti
Joint Treasurer
:
 Smt. Hetal Patel
Members
:
 Shri. Mahesh Rathod, Shri. Ashwin Patel, Smt. Ramila Patel, Shri. Hasmukh Patel
 
Office bearers & members of the managing committee are paid zero remuneration.



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