He has successfully planned, organized and executed various events at National and International levels and therefore has an International network. He has competence in module designing and expertise in setting up new institutions and centres for social cause. He has also worked with Model Village project setup and worked as a Project Manager for social sector in Karnataka and various other parts of India such as Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra making him a versatile knowledge and experience holder.

Founder’s journey so far and how the Rehabilitation centre under VSDESWS germinated

Prashant was on a vacation to his hometown Vijayapur, a city that plunges in North Karnataka. Accidently, he encountered with a differently abled child and his parents. It was very heart wrenching to see the condition of the child and also his parents elucidated the complete scenario that there are actually no quality rehabilitation centres for the disabled in the region and it becomes inevitable to travel to Mysore for the treatment of the child. But, this was highly expensive and only 10% could afford to go there and opt for the treatment leaving the rest of the 90% ejected. This made Prashant to think on the situation and he decided to work in this sector of differently abled in the region. This created a sort of curiosity to explore more about the differently abled sector and he joined the APD- The Association of people with disability at Bengaluru.

He worked there for a duration of two years as a Program Coordinator. Meanwhile, he was learning about the different kinds of disabilities. During his reign at the APD, he witnessed a challenge to address, it was the time when they were attempting to render an Inclusive concept of differently abled to inculcate many kinds of disabilities and work for their development. (Earlier, only few kinds of disabilities were covered). Therefore Prashant was successful in implementing it in Vijayapur, Bagalkot and Kalburgi. But, was not happy with the results as only 22% of the differently abled children were actually made fit to attend schooling and leaving the 78% who lacked confidence, needed a fully fledged disabled friendly environment and were incapable. Also there were several restrictions imposed on whom to get admitted. (i.e., Children with specific kind of disability only were allowed and omitting the rest). Therefore this inclusive concept of theirs left many of the children excluded.

Demands and requests were raised by many of their Parents. They approached Prashant. He was really juggled with many thoughts; he wanted to work for the differently abled children who were excluded from the inclusive concept. He finally gave up on the job. This resulted in the initiation of our Rehabilitation centre for the Differently abled under VSDESW Society. We encompass 17 kinds of disabilities at our centre, highly optimistic and always strive for the inclusive concept. Also, our Centre is verified and certified by the District Disabled Welfare Office although it has been registered a few months ago.

Originally we started with only 4 children. Our plan was to get atleast 20 differently abled children enrolled in a year. Also, we had four phases in the process of development of the children and make them apt for schooling. But we are able to achieve the results within three phases alone. The differently abled children today are getting evolved and showing sizeable developments in a short span of time. We have accomplished more than what we actually had planned. We have walked the talk as today we have 28 students currently enrolled in just 5 months span and receiving 160+ applications from across Karnataka and Maharashtra.

If Prashant wouldn’t have sacrificed his only job and his only source of earning which he had that day and thought only about money, then the excluded kids wouldn’t have had another chance to lead a respectful life with dignity. “Be optimistic, work for the precluded and the most deprived” is the message he gives out to all the youths.