DEVNAR Founder Chairman Dr. A. Saibaba Goud and the Correspondent Mrs. A. Jyothi Goud receiving accolades from top dignitories Devnar Foundation for the Blind - Scaling new hights ‘DEVNAR’ is a combination of two and motivation to make something special happen. words DEV (God) and NAR (Man), The avowed objective of Devnar Foundation for highlighting the fact that there is God the Blind is to provide opportunities for the visually in every man. If the entire humanity is challenged children in India on international the family of God, the visually standards so that they can be absorbed in the challenged children are special mainstream of society as socially productive members in it. And so, they should be individuals. In Devnar School, education, boarding given every possible opportunity to and lodging are absolutely free and any Visually develop their potentialities and latent Challenged child is admitted during any part of talents. the year. Devnar Foundation tries to unleash the Devnar Foundation started the school on 10-7- incredible capacity of students by giving 1992 with four students in a rented house. Within them value-based education and a span of 18 years, the school has grown to the enabling them to realize that within present stature with 400 students, housed in a three them can be found the skill, knowledge storeyed building owned by the Foundation. This phenomenal growth is due to the undoubted ability and unflinching enthusiasm of the founder Dr. A. Devnar Foundation for the Saibaba Goud, and his wife Mrs. Jyothi, the Blind provides all that is dedicated staff, many philanthropists and donors. necessary to bring out the There is a steady influx of visitors to the school. best in the students. Their Politicians and pressmen, beauty queens and abilities outshine the bureaucrats, scientists and sportsmen, disability to such an extent philanthropists and film stars come and meet the that the visitors leave the students. Some of them struggle to keep back the school humbled by the tears at first, but after interacting with them, it is not tears of pity they shed, but tears of admiration. unconquerable spirit, perseverance and “An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man,” said Dr. Emerson. True to this philosophy, performance of the the visionary behind Devnar Foundation is Dr. A. students. Saibaba Goud. He is a crusader against ‘darkness’ Our Founder & Managing Trustee Dr. A. Saibaba Goud, M.S., Ph.D., receiving Padma Shri Award from Her Excellency Smt. Pratiba Patil, President of India - 2009 and a champion of Community Ophthalmology. for Prevention of Blindness, A.P. He is the first person in India who was awarded (N.S.P.B) and member of Indian Red Ph.D in Community Ophthalmology. Cross Society. Dr. Goud is the recipient of the following He works tirelessly for the development awards: of Devnar School for the Blind. The infrastructure and equipment are 1. Padma Shri Award updated constantly and the strength 2. Dr. B. C. Roy National Award – 2004 has increased from 4 in 1992 to 400 in 2010. 3. President of India National Award for the welfare of people with disabilities 1997 He has presented papers at the national and international conferences, 4. President of India Award for ‘Best Institution published many articles in English and in the Country 2002’ Telugu leading newspapers and 5. Rastriya Gaurav Award journals. His radio talks and 6. K.R.Datta Award Doordarshan interviews are well received by the audience for their 7. J.S.Mahashabde Award educative and informative value. 8. Duke of Edinburgh Award He has also authored three books - one 9. Drishti Pradatha Award in English and two in Telugu. 10. E.V.Srinivasan Award 1. The Organ of Sight (in English) 11. Dr. Agarwal Gold Medal 2. Nayanabhiramam (in Telugu vernacular) 12. Vijayashree Award 3. Meeru-Mee Kanulu (book on eye 13. Siva Reddy International Award care for neo-literates in Telugu He is also the President of ‘Help Us Organization vernacular) for Leprosy Patients’, President of National Society Our Correspondent with joy that she is destined to be a mother not only to her own children but also to hundreds of children who study and go out of Devnar School. She is a life member of Indian Red Cross Society, AP Branch, National Association for the Blind, and All India Women’s Conference. On December 3rd 2008 (the World Disabled Day) Mrs. Jyothi Goud received the National Award from the Vice President of India as Devnar School was adjudged the best institute for empowering the visually challenged. Mrs. A. Jyothi Goud, true to her name, is really the light of the institution, dispelling darkness by her gracious STAFF presence and ever vigilant care. She is dynamic and resourceful and her best In the life of an institution, the importance of efforts are spontaneously given to teamwork and interdependence cannot be improve every aspect of the Institute. underestimated. The Visually Challenged Children She is a loving and compassionate have special needs and hence the teachers have mother to the students and the guiding multifaceted responsibilities and roles. This calls for force behind the organization. Her a dynamic approach and a constant renewal of unlimited enthusiasm in making the skills. children excel in dance and music is Devnar School has an experienced Principal, Mrs. remarkable and praiseworthy. She is Lily Egbert, who sets the pace for academic the fulcrum of the institute. excellence in the school; a Headmaster, Mr. K. In 1992, she fully shared Dr. Goud’s Srinivas Reddy, who co-ordinates all educational enthusiasm for launching the Devnar programmes conducted here and also about 35 Foundation for the Blind, though her teaching staff who give unstinted support to all own children were small at that time. curricular and co-curricular activities. Most of the Now, eighteen years later, she realizes teachers are specially trained to teach the Visually OUR STAFF Challenged students and the parent-teachers Class XII. At present, the curriculum is based bring in a depth of understanding to the on the State syllabus; and the Assignment teaching process. Highly qualified Tests, Unit tests, Quarterly, Half yearly and educationists and professionals, who do Annual exams are conducted on the dates voluntary service, enhance the learning specified by the government. Our students experience of the students. have been appearing for S.S.C. public examination since 1997, and ever since the The administrative and non-teaching staff see school has been getting 100% results every to the efficient functioning of the institution. year. All of them pass in first division and The resident wardens take care of the needs many get distinctions. of the students and the supporting staff maintains the cleanliness of the premises. Elocution, essay writing, Braille reading and Every year two volunteers sponsored by an writing competitions are held periodically. organisation called Project Trust Centre from Quiz programmes are also conducted. U.K and teach our students for a period of Students take part in inter-school competitions one year staying on the school premises. and win many prizes. Computer education Besides these volunteers, we have had starts from VI class onwards. Besides volunteers from Germany, Denmark, USA classroom teaching, study material is and Australia. The cultural exchange is provided in audio and Braille format for the beneficial for our students. benefit of the students. Devnar School This school won the “Best Institution in India for the Visually Challenged” award in the year It is a residential school offering English 2003 and again in 2008. Devnar School is medium education from kindergarten to now acclaimed as the best institution in India. different applications in Microsoft Office, different Activities languages like C, C++, Java, etc and to access Internet like browsing, creating E-mail ID, sending mails, opening the Emails etc. It can make visually challenged person comfortable to use Microsoft Office and other software products. COMPUTER TRAINING FOR The visually challenged person can install JAWS if he or she so desires. VISUALLY CHALLENGED Kurzweil Devnar School for the Blind is a center for best computer education. This is the Kurzweil is a software used for reading printed text. first institution in India, to start special A scanner is used to scan the printed text. The computer training for visually Kurzweil software commands the local scanner, challenged in the year 2000. We have connected to the computer, to scan the printed the best faculty to teach computers with matter and to obtain the image of the text page. the help of special software. Special The scanned image is in the form of photograph of software like JAWS, KURZWEIL, MAGIC the text page. This photographic text is then etc, is being used for teaching computer converted to actual characters by OCR (Optical courses. A class-wise syllabus has been Character Recognition) software incorporated in prepared. We are training the children Kurzweil monitor screen. Screen reader transforms to operate the system using KEYBOARD the text on monitor screen to voice. In this way the with the help of special software. visually challenged person can listen to the printed text interpreted by screen reading software. Software for Visually challenged are: Jaws Magic Magic is the software used by a person with low Job Access With Speech is a screen vision. Here the text is magnified so that a person reading software and, in short, it is with low vision can see the text on the screen with called JAWS. This software is specially the help of this software. The person can use mouse developed for the visually challenged. as he can see the magnified image of cursor on It is based on Microsoft Windows the monitor screen.