Coimbatore: Nine-year-old Darshini’s smile lit up the room when she received the honorary plaque gifted by the authorities of the Government School for the Blind at Uliyampalayam near Thondamuthur on Thursday, the World Vision Day. Then she began explaining about the plaque to the visually-challenged students of the school who had gathered around her,
guiding their hands to the object of pride,
encouraging them to feel it.
For the 16 students of the school, Darshini had become a friend, teacher and guide from the first day she walked in six months ago. “I was playing blind man’s buff with my friends and couldn’t touch any of them. That was when I realised how difficult the lives of the visually-challenged people would be. I approached my father and told him that I wanted to help visually-challenged people,” the girl, a Class IV student at the Yuvabharathi Public School at Kanuvai near the city, told TOI.
It was her father N Kamalakannan, who took Darshini to the Uliyampalayam school and sought headmistress S Sumathi's permission to interact with the students there. The experience was so fulfilling that she decided to visit the school every weekend and teach the students whatever she knew. “She comes on all weekends and teaches our students general knowledge and music, including Hindi songs. She also buys them books and snacks,” said Sumathi.
Darshini called it an enriching experience, where she also gets to learn from the differently-abled children, some of whom are of her own age. “Whenever I come here, the students greet me by calling me akka (sister) and are cheerful in my company.”
“I want to create a world where there is no blindness. I want to create awareness on eye donation and organ donation, and want to take my cause to the UN,” the girl said.
Darshini is an avid sports enthusiast also and excels in quarter skating marathon’ and Silambam.
Kamalakannan said that they always tell their daughter that apart from achieving big in life, she should also serve others.
The Government School for the Blind was started in 1980 at Perur. It was shifted to the own building at Uliyampalayam in 1986. The school has 16 students from Classes I to V. The boarding school has two visually-challenged teachers, a warden a maid and a cook.