Birth centenary of Mrs Geeta Basu 16 December 2017

Relatives and friends of late Mrs Geeta Basu organized a get together followed by a Seminar on 16-12-2017 at Turiyananda Hall, Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol mPark, Kolkata from 2 to 6PM.

Mrs Geeta Basu, wife of Dr A K Basu, a distinguished surgeon of Kolkata, initiated the process of approaching the Govt for a piece of land to set up an institution for the rehabilitation of the Blind. She had been a pioneering social worker with an advanced educational background and an exposure to Western Culture. In 1970 she motivated her friends & wellwishers and set up Welfare Society for the Blind, east of Majherhat Bridge, Kolkata. At that time the city of Kolkata had only three Blind schools and hardly any center for the training of the adult Blind.

Applying her innovative mind she opened various employable training programs and music programs for the Blind

Social Role Valorization Workshop Dec 05-08, 2017

Social Role Valorization Workshop Dec 05-08, 2017

This Workshop was hosted by the Keystone Institute of India & supported by The Hans Foundation, New Delhi at Hotel Piccadilly, Janakpuri (W), New Delhi.

Invited delegates from various parts of India participated.

Mrs Elizabeth Betsy Newville with the assistance of four other Resource Persons conducted this Workshop in a lecture mode followed by Group discussions.

The term "Devalue" came up as a vital issue in handling persons who are kept deprived, who are not able to fight for their own rights, remain left behind in the community. Majority of the participants spoke for persons with autism and mental illness as well as mental retardation.

Very sensitive terms such as "mindset" changing, "attitude" changing came up again and again.

How two Blind adults rescued an Engineer from Hyderabad in West Bengal 19-12-2017

2017: technology aiding persons with Disabilities to mainstream

Sadhan Gupta, former Advocate General, Govt of West Bengal, a pioneering Blind person as a legal expert, P_arliamentarian, political activist under the British rule and a compassionate friend of the Blind & Vision Impaired 2017

HMI-IMF-SVH Mountaineering for the Blind: the first organized training of its kind in the world completes 28 years 1989-2017

Today 01 November 2017 is a very special day for the Society for the Visually Handicapped (SVH), Kolkata as exactly 28 years ago, on 01 Nov 1989 the first batch of Blind & Vision Impaired youths from West Bengal and Maharashtra participated in the Special Basic Course on Mountaineering conducted by the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling under the leadership of late Col Amit Roy and Nima Tashi Sir. Today looking back I find it was a time of deep turmoil, violence, agitation rocking the Darjeeling Hills. SVH organized this Course with grit and determination with support from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, New Delhi. From 1989 to 2001 it was an annual course. Later there were interruptions and in 2017 we could conduct a short orientation program at HMI, Darjeeling.

Officials & volunteers of SVH remain ever so grateful to so many individuals and organizations for  spontaneous support to make this project a success! Many of our beloved members, well wishersm friends and donors are no more but they live afresh in our memories!

Society for the VH (SVH), Kolkata: Addition to Digital audio books Oct 2017: see Facebook "Braillebooksfor blindSvh"

Author	Title	Page no	Recordists
30-10-2017
Saroj Bandyopadhyay	Banla Upanyase Kalantar	391	Alaknanada Mitra
Udaykumar Chakraborty	Banla Sanbartani Byakaran	256	Suparna Mandal
Sankho Ghosh	Supuri Boner Sari	92	Swati Panja
Swami Prajanananda	Bharatiya Sangiter Itihas Vol 1	360	Sumana Nandi
Swami Prajanananda	Bharatiya Sangiter Itihas Vol 2	345	Mita Chatterjee
Asapurna Devi	Asapurna Devir Satabarshiki Samkalan	496	Sarbani Banerjee
Pratapranjan Hazra ed	Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay. Kamalakanter Daptar. (ref)	142	Krishnakali Das
Apurba Deb & Tapan Mandal eds	Nurjahan Phire Dekha.	256	Sumana Nandi