Public-spirited individuals choose different methods of serving people. Highly motivated as they are, their main concern is the welfare of people and to that end they drive all their efforts and energies.
Hubli-based couple Shriramalu and Shyamala belong to that genre of people who believe in providing selfless service to society. The couple has started a free residential nursery school for the visually impaired and are successfully training such kids for the last few years.

Shriramulu, who worked for a non-governmental organisation, realised the trouble the visually impaired faced in learning even simple tasks like sitting, bathing and interacting with people. Hence, he decided to start a school to equip such kids well so that they find it easy to manage themselves in formal schools.

The result was the Aroodha Blind Children's Residential Nursery School. Located near Siddaroodh Math in Hubli, the school houses 45 visually impaired kids from the economically weaker sections of society, all in the age group of 3-8. Everything including food, accommodation and training is provided free of cost.

In their first year in school, the focus is on social orientation, where they are encouraged to attend to their daily chores on their own, with occasional support. Within a year, children learn lessons in personal hygiene, prayers, yoga and music. Children learn yoga through touch-and-feel-method.

Teaching of Braille language begins in the second year. Besides, developing communication skills and maintaining a good rapport with co-students is also taught.

By the end of their second year in school, most children start carrying out their work on their own, besides reading and writing fluently.  They are then shifted to first standard in formal schools meant for the visually impaired.

Many past students of the school are doing exceptionally well in their 7th and 10th standards. A girl student, Savitri Irappa Meerkod, was invited by the Governor to deliver the inaugural speech at a function in Bangalore two years ago. This speaks volumes of the kind of training the visually challenged children get in the school.
Shyamala, the co-founder, however, regrets the fact that most parents of such visually impaired children think them as a burden and therefore neglect them. “Sadly, parents do not even come to visit their children studying in the school even once a year,” she rues.

The ideal couple believe in the popular  adage ‘Tamasoma Jyothirgamaya’ (show me light) and have been doing their bit in providing ‘sight’ to the ‘sightless.’