The Bangalore-based Al-Aman Educational and Welfare Trust is coming up with the residential Ashiana Centre for the Blind and the Physically Challenged, offering skill training and much more! It’s a path-breaking effort to help the community realise setting up more such social institutions is an urgent need of the hour.
Complacency does not exist in the dictionary of the Bangalore-based Al-Aman Educational and Welfare Trust! The Trust, which has showcased success stories like the Ashiana Old Age Home in Kannamanglapalya, the Ashiana Free Food Bank on Mosque Road and the Ashiana Free Skill Development Institute in Bhoopsandra, is back again this time with an institution to help the visually- and physically- challenged!
Mohammed Farooq, Chairman of the Al-Aman Educational and Welfare Trust, along with Amina, the Trust’s General Secretary, have ventured out courageously to set up a centre for the blind and the physically-challenged in Kadgunahalli in the city. The building is coming up just behind one of Bangalore’s largest slums, D. J Halli.
The centre, which will be residential, will offer skill training for the visually- and physically-challenged in various vocations so that they are empowered to handle life independently. Also, the space can also be used for things like personality development workshops in the non-teaching hours, explains Amina.
The spark to start the centre began when Mohammed Farooq, Amina and other Trustees realised that the community had almost no such institution at all. ‘Parents who have children who are visually- or physically- challenged often feel embarrassed and keep them in hiding in their homes and do not want to expose them to the world. But these people too have a right to live a dignified life, a better life than living in claustrophobic environments. God has blessed these people with some extra intelligence or skills which even the sighted do not possess. So we hope that the centre will open doors of opportunity for the blind and physically-challenged to learn, develop and contribute positively to the society through their talents,’ explains Amina.
The building work has begun. Some people might wonder why the Al-Aman Educational and Welfare Trust is putting its finger in so many pies. But honestly there is so much to be done by way of service to humanity and we want to leave behind a legacy of charitable work so that the next generation takes over. The current flock of youngsters have no clue about the miseries of the poor, needy, the blind, the physically challenged, of the hungry and the sick. The Ashiana centre for the Blind, like the rest of our institutions, should be a torch that will light the path ahead for the coming generations,’ says Amina.
Meanwhile, the Trust also would like to expand its existing Old Age Home, which is perhaps the only Muslim-run home for the elderly destitute in Bangalore and is completely free of charge. It has a 10 year history of caring for the old. Its building needs to be expanded so that the inmates can get more comfort and so that more people can be taken in. The place has a capacity of only 45 people, but has already taken 55. The Trust gets several calls every now and then for people who need a place in the Ashiana Old Age Home. But the Trustees have to reject these calls due to lack of space In this regard, compassionate philanthropists and organisations can chip in to help the Trust in its plans for a new building with more intake capacity.
Sitting with Amina reflecting on the Trust’s mission for the elderly destitute and the visually- and physically-challenged reminds one of how many of us simply take for granted take our happy state of mind or our physical health or our God-given eyes. The commitment of the Trust and its team in serving people in severe need is truly touching.
If you’d like to share in this noble work, you can catch up with Mohammed Farooq and Amina by email on [email protected]
Ph: 9740125500, 9964908600.
Donations in favour of:
Al Aman Educational and Welfare Trust
our bankers: UCO Bank,
Frazer Town Branch
Ac no: 06240210000830
IFSC Code: UCBA0000624
(Reported by Nigar and Dolcy)
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