Lit The Light Trust, a Chennai-based non-profit known for connecting the visually challenged with scribes, has embarked on a livelihood project in wire chair canning.

Launched recently with the support of various organisations, the project seeks to give visually challenged adept at wire chair canning a leg-up.

To start with, 10 visually challenged persons drawn from various areas of Chennai are being offered advanced skill development and work opportunities.

Barath SN, founder, Lit The Light Trust, says the biggest hurdles faced by these weavers are: getting work orders and difficulty in travelling to a customer’s place to undertake the work.

Both these concerns have been addressed by Lit The Light Trust. “Voluntary Health Services (VHS) Multi Speciality Hospital in Taramani has a space by the name ‘Centre for Visual Rehabilitation’ where we can undertake training and design fresh chairs with wires,” says Barath.

The plan is to make this space at VHS a one-stop point for this project. The Trust will be procuring raw materials that the visually challenged can work on from the premises.

“They would also be happy to go to homes for repairs or recanning and the payment can be made directly to them. We are only the bridge helping them get work and market the products made by them,” says Barath.

The larger goal is to ensure the visually challenged get a steady source of income. The plan is to induct more such visually challenged into this livelihood project and find other trades that can be scalable. “Some are seen seeking alms in trains and public places as they do not have a regular source of revenue that we want to discourage by getting them work,” he says.

Sixty-one-year-old M. Elango, a visually challenged weaver for the last 35 years, says some of them are associated with the Physically Challenged Welfare Cooperative Society in Guindy through which they get work. “I am ready to travel from my home in Arumbakkam to places around to take up work,” he says.

His request to Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay is to allot the work of recanning chairs at government offices to visually challenged so that they have a reliable source of income.

The Trust is getting ready to make wire bags so that it can be given as return gifts on special occasions. “We see a market for that and with the corporates we are in touch we could promote such gifts,” says Barath.

Cook India Medical Devices Pvt. Ltd helped the Trust under its CSR project.

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