This is the story of Esha , Details about our work, what we do, how to reach us, and how you can support us.

1. Esha
People for the blind
July, 2016

2. Esha – people for the blind
Who are we?
A team of volunteers spread across the country, who believe in equal opportunities for the blind and
work towards the same
What are we about?
 Dignity, Empowerment and Enablement
 Sensitization to the special skills and needs
 Catalysts, above everything else

3. The Esha Journey

4. Employment
Sensitisation
CLABIL
Today – Our Three Verticals
Braille Cards
Theater
Workshop
Online Library
Outreach
Read Fests
Summer
Project
Blind Walks
Tour De Vision
Festive
Braille Cards
Theater
Workshops
Open Braille
Sessions
Social Media

5. Braille Enabled Stationery
 Braille enable your stationery
 Visiting cards
 Greeting Cards
 No need to change existing layout or material

6. Braille Greeting and Visiting Cards
 How do the Blind benefit?
• Employment opportunity
• Financial independence
• Dignity
 How does an Individual benefit?
• Great Ice Breaker
• Personal Branding
• Health Awareness
How do Organizations benefit?
• Instant & visible CSR
• Sensitization of employees
• Positive First Impression
• Diversity
• Serve differentially abled customers/clients
• Tap virgin source of talent
• Employment generation rather than charity

7. Theatre Workshops
 Objectives of the workshop
 Sensitizing people
 Team building
 Lots of fun!
 Shared Experiences make a bonded team.
Shared First time experiences lead to stronger bonds
 Sensitization ensures you have more empathic people around you
More empathy = More positive people = More vibrant workplaces
 Health Awareness is an added bonus

8. Tour de Vision
 Tour De Vision is cycling event, where various cyclists (professional and amateur) are invited to
participate in a 25/50 km ride that we call Tour de Vision.. Miles For Lives..
 Cyclists contribute by their participation in the event
 Individuals and Organisations support the event by sponsoring one or more cyclists, or by
sponsoring the event itself
 We organized an outdoor activity like cycling, to remind everyone that public spaces have become
even more inaccessible than they were in the 80s. This is our endeavour to raise awareness about
the importance of making public spaces accessible to everyone – including the visually challenged
www.tourdevision.org

9. Blind Walk
 Blind Walk is just what it says – Take a cane, close your eyes (no blindfolds), and try to access public spaces
 Guided Tour with various models:
 Sighted Guide in a pair – Touch based guidance and navigation
 Sighted Guide in a pair – Verbal guidance only
 One sighted guide for 2-3 people, holding hands, with navigation
 One companion, no guide. Self navigation. (Observer mandatory)
 Experience the World of public spaces through another perspective

10. Recognition of our work – Press
Stories

11. Some of our clients

12. Testimonials
“I really think everyone should get this done. Everyone.”
- Jawed Habib
“There is instant recognition and importance to an otherwise simple card as it
communicates your human side.”
- Maithreyi Venkatraman
(Entrepreneur, Knowledge Advisor, and Esha’s first customer. She still gets her cards Braille enabled as a rule.)
“The whole process from initial contact to receiving the cards was efficient. I feel
very nice using such cards braille enabling is admirable work. You are doing a
great job but you already know that!”
- Kapil Marwaha, Entrepreneur

13. Testimonials Continued..
"My small venture is in a developing industry and it takes quite some time to establish trust and rapport with
prospective customers. In my business meetings, just handing out these cards gets people warmed up and I can
feel a goodwill established. They are excellent ice-breakers. I had got my cards brailled only to ensure that I don't
exclude anyone from knowing about my business. Now I find this additional benefit of establishing a human
bond with the card receivers instantly, irrespective of their visual abilities! Thank you very much and keep the
great work going!"
- Venkat Kandaswamy, Founder, Apartmentadda.com
“Just before and after giving the card, there is a mental high. Getting Braille done on my cards has raised my self
esteem.”
- Siddhartha Barthakur, Ashoka
“Braille enabled cards started out for us because we really thought it was a superb idea. Over this period, the
experience with Esha and with Braille cards has been consistently strengthened by the positive experience we
have had - with both. We sincerely hope that more and more corporates in India are able to make use of this
service because inclusive communication and inclusive spaces, really, should be elementary to any business.”
- Amit Gopal, Vice President, India Life

14. Testimonials Continued…
“Being access consultants, the decision to get our visiting cards Braille enabled was natural; however the challenge was to make sure that the card
retains its visual appeal while being embossed with Braille, a constraint we felt with most Braille printers. After frantically looking for options
on the internet, I came upon the link to “Esha – the Braille place”and found out about the Braille printing service it had to offer. On contacting
Nidhi at Esha, I was directed to Chandrashekhar or Chandru as he is fondly called. Chandru who is visually impaired, and an expert with
Braille offered to print my visiting cards and since I was traveling to Bangalore (where he lives) I decided to meet him before I gave him a
small quantity of 600 to start with. Besides being the most humble person, I found him to be a true professional when it came to his job. He
not only made all the effort to visit me and understand how I really wanted them to be printed, but also showed me some samples that made
me more confident about his work. He effortlessly printed each one of them by hand using a Braille typewriter and delivered them before the
promised time, and it may sound clichéd but the cards came out classier than ever.
The story so far is that I have got all visiting cards for my organization printed in Braille, and every time I pass on my card to someone it not only
acts as an ice breaker, but also helps me spread a little awareness about how this small effort is making a huge difference to the lives of
persons with visual impairment. My visiting cards have been able to convince a lot of people on the importance of Braille and more
importantly helped me to connect better with a lot of people including visually impaired persons, who appreciate the visiting card that I hand
them now, instead of the one that I used to carry earlier.
The way I see it, my cards were just a piece of silent stationery, but now after getting Braille on them, they do the talking.”
- Sachin Verma , Access Ability

15. Beneficiary Speak –
Chandrashekar
“Esha made me financially independent. It helped strengthen our family’s
finances because my family has 3 visually disabled persons out of 4. I don’t
have a father and earning is not easy. With Esha’s money, we conducted our
sister’s marriage and also constructed our own house. I also could finance my
own marriage with Esha money.
I learnt the skill of business. Esha work is after office hours. So whenever I find
time, I can work on Esha. I learnt business skills – how to manage customers,
how to talk, how quality and time to deliver is very important.
Now I am encouraging others also to learn and become independent like me.
My brother already does a lot of work with me.
In December, 2009, on my own, I started doing labeling stickers for buildings. I
earned around 10,000 rupees from this new product in one month alone! I am
hoping that more companies will want these cheap and easy to do labels.”

16. Beneficiary Speak – Raju Koli
“Esha is more than a source of employment for me. I am a B Ed. student
and while we do get grants for tuition fee, we get no money to make
teaching aids. I can confidently say that it is because of Esha that I could
complete my B Ed.
But what I am going to say next is more important. Before doing Esha
theatre workshops, we never thought that a blind person can be a trainer
for the sighted. But now, when students from the country’s best
institution (IIT Delhi) come up to me and congratulate me for being a
great trainer, we get the sense that we should be teachers in a regular
school, not in a blind school. We can teach sighted children also if we
want. For that confidence, I want to thank Esha, and Nidhi mam who
always told me to believe in myself.”
 Raju won the Karmaveer Chakra in 2015 for his work on the Theatre
Workshop.

17. Engage with Esha
 Theater Workshops for Team Building
 Braille Enabled Visiting Cards and Greeting Card Stickers
 Read Fest for the CLABIL Project
 Field Work for Schools and Offices – Contribute Your Time

18. Join us to make a difference to
those who lack Sight not Vision..
E-mail: eshabraille@gmail.com, hello@braillecards.org
Phone: +91 9999562685
Websites: www.braillecards.org | www.clabil.org | www.tourdevision.org
Blog: http://eshabraille.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/eshabraille
Twitter: Eshabraille