Adarsha – Progress Story

Nawaz Pasha’s Story

I was born in a poor family in a village near Dodballapur. I was born blind and at the age of 10 I was also impacted by polio. However these disabilities made me stronger to take on the challenges of the life. After completing SSLC, I started getting myself familiar with social sector by doing a 10 months Social work training from Sevasadan and decided to work for disabled people like me and help them to live a life of dignity.

In 1994, I started working in Dodballapur Taluq in the area of community development especially for disabled people. I also took part in Community based Rehabilitation (CBR) program. I completed CBR course in 1996 with CBR South Asia Network. I worked with various organizations in this field like Seva Sadan, Stet Alliance SPJ, Samaj Parivartan Jana, Association Navijyoti Services etc. I also worked for child rights and reproductive child health.

I was sponsored by CRY to do a state level fellowship with APD. I was awarded fellowship of Leaders Quest of US and am supported by Action Aid India for my work with physically challenged and Muslim women. I founded Adarsha Community development Service Centre in February 2011.

Adarsha works on a wide canvas. Its activities range from

• Counselling people to dispute resolution
• Providing free music classes
• Promotion of a music troupe of blind people
• Launching of “Abhivruddhi Munnota” a bridge between panchayats and people
• Promoting women’s education
• Encouraging drop outs to return to school etc.

Goal

I want to provide people with disabilities especially in rural and remote areas, to have access to education and vocational skills so that they can live their life with dignity and I want to create awareness and sensitise people about the rights of people with disabilities. I want to create a dynamic network of people with disabilities and those who are supporting them.

How I made it happen

In February 2016, I was selected to attend GAP event at Gandhinagar . At GAP event I met a lot of people working in different areas of social change. I was able to make connection with many people who are ready to help people working in social area. I also was exposed to how to make presentation to the stakeholders.

As part of the event, I was assigned a coach Ms Gayatri Anand, who helped me to clarify my focus areas. She helped me to set my goals. One of my goals was to start a hostel for the visually impaired girls from remote areas. I am pleased to announce that with my coach’s support, my dream is realised now. I have recently started a hostel with 15 girls. Now I want to take it forward and make it big so that more and more girls can benefit from this.

Nawaz Pasha

Adarsha Community Development Service Centre
Social Activist
P: +91 90082 42362 / 87460 90910