Score Foundation

Score Foundation was registered in 2002 as a non-profit trust to work for the visually impaired. They believe that the problem is not with the eye but with the mindset. The idea behind setting up Score was to change the mindset of people towards vision impairment and in the process, initiate a conversation on how to lead a Life with Blindness. They believe every visually impaired person is a potential part of the human resource of India and therefore needs to be invested in. Persons with blindness have the potential to become independent, contributing and fully functional members of society. Today there are successful blind people working as lawyers, journalists, bankers, entrepreneurs, Chartered Accountants, IT professionals and so on. India is a large and diverse country with blind people living in all parts. Services for them are scattered and in some states, even missing.

Eyeway bridges the gap that exists in information dissemination and channelling people to appropriate resources. There is a need to provide adequate information about possibilities and opportunities that exist for blind people across the country. There is also a need to empower them through counselling, redirecting them to rehabilitation services and advocating for their rights in the existing framework of the law. In short, the project addresses an ongoing need, in the absence of any other centralised service catering to this section of society. The Score Foundation is committed to disseminating information that can empower and inform the visually impaired so they are in the know of the myriad possibilities that lie ahead of them to lead an independent life.

Persons with vision impairment are often left behind socially and economically given the lack of awareness and access to resources from an early age. The Eyeway helpdesk aims to reach every blind and visually impaired person in the country to ensure access to information and knowledge to help them aspire to a better future. Through its knowledge and resource-sharing model, Eyeway aims to Inform, Inspire and Include persons with vision impairment in the mainstream. The available information and resources are scattered and Eyeway acts as an aggregator platform, making them easily accessible. They provide relevant information collected from multiple sources which are communicated through a team of trained visually impaired counsellors. Callers can easily relate to their counsellors, who then comprehend their respective issues and offer practical, solution-oriented advice. Callers are often referred to organizations and resources located near their place of residence. This is where the need to have several local partners steps in so that counsellors can offer local solutions to the callers in their native language.

At present, Eyeway takes calls in Hindi, English, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam and Urdu. Further, in the coming year, they would be taking calls in Oriya and Gujarati too. They aim to have an Eyeway Helpdesk network in every state. In this direction, they recently aired four radio programs on topics ranging from education to personal independence, banking and employment. The goal was to spread awareness of ‘To Live Life with Blindness’ and also increase the call inflow of the Eyeway Helpdesk.