First step of Lit the Light Career wing

 “Inclusion is the only safety if we are to have a peaceful world”

– Pearl S. Buck

 

Lit the Light Career Wing (LTLCW) was inaugurated on 15^th march 2020 by Dr. Alby John IAS, Regional Deputy Commissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation (south) at Presidency College. With a lot of tireless efforts and teamwork by our leads and volunteers we have successfully placed four of our visually challenged candidates in a well-reputed company.

The success story of Manimegalai

Ms. Manimegalai

Life is a challenge and let’s face it with courage. Manimekalai’s journey is an inspiration to all. She lost her vision partially when she was 14 years and with the support from her family, she completed her graduation with flying colors. She passed out as a successful MBA graduate purely with determination to win over the challenge she was facing from her childhood. She wanted to start her career; she was advised to learn computers. She was guided by Mitra Jyothi, center for empowerment of women and NIVH institute for visually challenged to learn the basics of operating systems. Later she was given immense training by TCS at Bangalore and Mumbai to enhance her computer skills. She was guided by Lit the light career team to prepare for job interviews and years of perseverance, hard work led her to obtain a job as an Accessibility tester at Iteria.us Hyderabad. She is elated by the support given by her senior management and colleagues to learn the job and she begins her career on a positive note.

The success story of Rajkumar

Mr. Rajkumar

Rajkumar hails from a middle-class family who struggled to lead a basic living with one or two meals a day. He lost his father when he was young, and his mother supported him to continue his education. Rajkumar received his basic education from St Louis school for visually challenged and later graduated in English from Loyola College. He is an inspiration to aspiring youngsters who like to learn and expand their ring of knowledge. Rajkumar spent his time preparing for interviews with his association with Lit the light career team.  Rajkumar spent hours updating himself on current affairs and he enrolled himself in various employment forums. He was offered a job by Iteria.us Hyderabad as an Accessibility tester, development of testing system tools. He is thankful to Almighty, his mother for the blessings he received and the colleagues who support him in his current job. In this competitive job market in the lockdown period, his performance and self-confidence have led him throughout to achieve his goal.

 

The success story of Prasad 

Mr. Prasad

Prasad Arun from Chennai has been placed in iQuantM Technologies Ltd., which is a certified SAP Partner with its headquarters registered in the United Kingdom and subsidiary offices in Canada, India, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Prasad holds a Masters of Arts in English Literature and has been offered the position of a presale’s consultant with iQuantM at Chennai. Lit the light has been instrumental in his journey by helping Prasad coordinate with iQuantM from sending his resume to receiving his offer letter. Prasad has expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Lit the Light for standing with him through this process and helping him realize his goal of working with a reputed organization. He also expresses his desire to see Lit the Light help many more such deserving candidates in their career and has a word of advice to aspiring professionals to not disheartened by the obstacles thrown their way but to rejoice in the knowledge that Lit the Light will guide them. Our hearty congratulations to Prasad Arun! Kudos to all at Lit the Light, especially to the Careers team, for this proud moment!

 

The Success Story of Balaji

Mr. Balaji

Balaji S from Tiruvannamalai is currently pursuing his final semester in Bachelors of Arts in English Literature from Madras Christian College, Chennai. Even before he has received his degree, Lit the Light has helped him land a job as Presales consultant with iQuantM at Chennai is a certified SAP Partner with its headquarters registered in the United Kingdom and subsidiary offices in Canada, India, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He has been offered the position of a presales consultant and is currently undergoing his training. Balaji is overwhelmed with gratitude for the constant follow up and continuous guidance from Lit the Light in his incredible journey from a student to a professional. Our hearty congratulations and wishes to Balaji in his new endeavor! A very proud moment for all of us at Lit the Light, especially for the Careers team, on this achievement!

Lit the Light's Sincere Thanks and Appreciation to Iteria.us and iQuantM for Inclusive hiring of our Visually Challenged Talents.

 

Author: Nithya Vasudevan & Deborah Jasmine

Endurance and Perseverance leads to success

 Perseverance is not a long race, it is many races one after another  -  Walter Elliot

What's perseverance?...

Perseverance is the quality of those who persevere and continue to do or try to achieve something despite difficulty or discouragement. Perseverance can also refer to the act of persevering, as in only through hard work and perseverance will we be able to achieve our goal and it will not be easy. Steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles and discouragement. 

The idea of perseverance is nothing new. We understand it at a basic level, yet many of dont's persevere. We give up too easily because we haven't mastered the art of perserverance. I name it as perserverance art because it needs a creative mind to come up with the answers to all the negativity, rejection and no's you  are going to get when pursuing your goal. Without perseverance, your mind defaults to " Time to give up mate; you're not cut out for this."...Hence,without blowing the trumpet, one should diligently master the art of perseverance. I believe that perseverance can be used to achieve anything you desire.  

Life is interestingly funny sometimes... it's always testing us, challenging our resolve, while pushing us to the edge of what seems impossible. Many look at these setbacks as insurmountable obstacles...on the other hand, many others, who come across such problems asking: Why not me? Why not now?...These are the people who believe that no matter what life throws their way, they will persist and persevere and eventually attain their goals and objectives. What follows is a real-life story on perisistence and perseverance of an young man, that I think everyone will be able to relate to on some level. 

Mr. Palanisamy 

As promised above, here's the story for us to understand the importance of perseverance and endurance. The young man in the pic above is Mr. Palanisamy, a visually challenged by birth...and the captain for the volleyball team of Tamil Nadu Visually Challenged VolleyBall Association. 

Mr. Palanisamy, born on Dec 4th, 1987 (33yrs old), in Siruvathur village at Kallakurichi district, Tamil Nadu. He was grew up among 4 other siblings, an elder brother and sister and an younger brother and a sister, with himself in the middle, along with his parents. Father was a farmer, which wasn't very flourishing due to economical reasons and his mother a homemaker. His older brother, now a farmer himself has partial vision, and his other siblings has no known disbilities. 

One can imagine the plight of growing up with disability in a small town with less facility, in spite of that, he was a good student and never gave up on his education. During his school days he was always inclined towards sports and his school teacher, the physical trainer encouraged him to do beyond his best, for which he is always thankful. One of his school senior Mr. Sathish, who happened to be visually challenged sportsman has always been an inspiration and role-model for Palanisamy. Sathish led him towards his goal to achieve in sports. 

During 2005-2006, under the advice of Sathish, Palanisamy started getting trained for Adopted Volleyball, by YMCA. At those time, YMCA was only organization, specialized in training Adopted Volleyball, specifically designed for visually challenged. This training gave him the confidence and move towards his goal in faster pace. YMCA gave him opportunities to play tournaments and prove his worth. 

Unfortunately, in his first year of his college days, he lost his father to lung cancer, due to his excessive alcohol drinking and smoking habit. Even under this situation, he didn't give up on his mission, actually this made him realise his strength even better. He thrived to be more independent and achieve his motives, so he can support his family in every possible way. Hence after graduation, he prepared for TNPSC competitive exam and got a job as a Junior Assistant, Group 4 level in the Public Health Dept of Tamil Nadu. 

Junior Assistant as his day job, he continued with his volleyball games and started volleyball games event management for Tamil Nadu Volleball Association for Blind. This association does more than training visually challenged in volleyball, they support for the education and also help with training for competitive exams too for the deserving visually challenged players. 

Mr. Palanisamy, very humbly conveyed his gratitude Lit the Light, non-profit organization exclusively for the visually challenged for supporting his association, and sponsoring for their team during previous year(s) tournaments. He solemnly recalled the organization's timely support and conducting the event with no glitches for which he was very thankful. 

Mr. Palanisamy is certainly a humble human to get aquainted and get inspired. He has many good value to add to this society and his confidence is indeed contagious and his contacts will certainly vouch for the same. He is a wonderful citizen to this country, a responsible son to his parents, a caring sibling, a loving husband for his wife Satya, who happens to be partially blind... most of all an affectionate father to his little princess - his daughter. 

Well, a person with such perspective and attitude, Mr. Palanisamy deserves our support and applause. Let's all make every effort to give back positivity to this society and make our Planet a better place to live for our Future Generations.  

Gathered & Scripted by, 
Chandra Viswanathan,

Volunteer, Lit the Light

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Just for reference...

The origin of inclusive volleyball specifically for blind originated in Japan about 40yrs ago. In Japan, visually impaired people can play and enjoy volleyball as a ball game sporting event for them then. It was invented by physical education teachers in school for the blind about 40yrs ago and the tools and rules of volleyball were modified so visually impaired people could play by themselves.