User:Mayee25/sandbox

Deaf Enabled Foundation is a non profit organisation founded by Thota Mallikarjun Sandeep in 2009. Its objective is to provide support in fields of education and employment for Indian deaf community. In 2021, the foundation was garnered with the Corona Yodha Samman by Youngistaan organisation for coordinating with the police and helping the deaf migrants in Maharashtra to reach their houses safely.

History

Earlier Sandeep was working with Deaf Way, an NGO, as a Computer Instructor. But since he was deaf, he felt that his opinions were not valued by the management. He was also constantly mocked by his colleagues. So, under the guidance of JSK Rao, a political activist and his mentor, and some of his former colleagues, Sandeep started Deaf EnAbled Foundation. He first opened a skilling center in Hyderabad where English communication, data entry and personality development classes were taught to deaf college dropouts who were looking for jobs that can help their families overcome financial difficulties. Now the organisation has over 11 branches in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.

 Initiatives 

DEF Academy

Under this programme,  formal education is provided to deaf students pursuing intermediate and degree courses. The instructors are deaf and teach in Indian Sign Language.

DEF ISL

To promote deaf culture and protect sign language among both the deaf and non-deaf, online and offline classes are hosted. Under this initiative, several organisations like Amazon, Unilever, Flipkart etc held employee skilling workshops.

DEF Skills

One of the oldest running projects of Deaf Enabled Foundation, DEF Skill is now supported by Tech Mahindra Foundation. Till date 6000 deaf youngsters were benefited by it.

EduTech

The organisation has patent rights on two mobile applications. The DEF ISL App is an English to Indian Sign Language dictionary. It has 70000 words and sentences now. The EduSign Academy App is a mobile application that provides education to deaf students across India. Currently, it provides syllabus of Telangana and Tamil Nadu in Indian Sign Language.

Miscellaneous

The foundation also runs awareness programmes for deaf women and the elderly deaf adults. They organise sports tournaments and adventure camps for the deaf youngsters. Deaf EnAbled Foundation also conducts annual award ceremony for teachers and deaf students to encourage formal education in the community. An interschool drawing and painting competition is organised on this occasion.