Chennai (India CSR): The Global Rainbow Foundation Charitable Trust, kick started their operations in India today in collaboration with the IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP), India’s first University-based Research Park, and TorchIt. The launch event saw chief guests – Shri K. Rajaraman IAS, Joint secretary, Dept. of economic affairs, TN, Dr. Homiyar Mobedji, Disability Expert, Program Head – [Asia & Africa], Benetech, Mr. Rajkumar, Founder, Global Rainbow Foundation, India and Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, President – IIT Madras Research Park, IITM Incubation Cell & RTBI, Dr. Bakthavachalam and Dr. Karthikeyan, Trustee, Global Rainbow Foundation.
The event brought together over 50 People with Disabilities (PwD), in addition to experts across the disability domain and incubated assistive tech startups from the IITM Incubation Cell. In alignment with the celebrations, artists and high-achieving individuals from the disabled community showcased engaging performances and were honoured by GRF. In addition to the launch, ten AI powered “Smart Canes” – developed by Torchit, were also distributed among beneficiaries by Hunny Bhagchandani, Founder, TorchIt Electronics.
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Founded by Prof. Armoogum Parsuramen G.O.S.K. in Mauritius on 11th November 2011, The Global Rainbow Foundation (GRF) was incepted with the aim of empowering differently abled persons and vulnerable groups through educating, enabling, and empowering Persons with Disabilities.
Across the last decade, GRF has worked extensively in Mauritius towards educating, enabling, empowering Persons with Disabilities, advocating for their rights and providing them with the opportunity for holistic human development so that they can lead a happy and rewarding life.
Primary areas of work include:
- Fostering a strong partnership with local and international organizations in the development of capacity-building programs in education, training, health, rehabilitation, social and economic integration.
- Improving the quality of education and training delivered to Persons with Disabilities (PwDs)
- Empowering them through equitable employment opportunities thus encouraging greater self-esteem.
- Enabling deployment of different assistive technology devices to benefit people with disabilities as a means for education, employment and empowerment
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Additionally, its role also consists of organizing awareness-raising activities and campaigns aimed at altering attitudes and stereotypical perceptions towards people with disabilities.
Dr. Armoogum Parsuramen GOSK, Founder-President, Global Rainbow Foundation said, “After serving the disabled community in Mauritius for over a decade, we are now set to bring this noble initiative to India and serve the community here. We have been very passionately working towards empowering persons with disabilities in different ways, and one way we are doing that is through supporting them with assistive tech devices that helps enable easy mobility. We thank IIT Madras Research Park for their support throughout, it is truly a privilege to be able to collaborate with them in officiating our launch in India.”
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, President – IIT Madras Research Park, IITM Incubation Cell & RTBI, said: “ IITM Research Park and IITM Incubation Cell have decided to have a major focus on getting India to be a leader in Assistive Technology which is useful for people with disabilities. Thus, we are very happy to support the Global Rainbow Foundation in their endeavours.”
(India CSR)
