Panaji: Office of the State Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities and Disability Alliance for Inclusive Goa in association with Sanjay Centre for Special Education is celebrating Women’s Day on Saturday, March 11.
The annual programme ‘Spoorthi’ will include a talk on Empowering Women with Disabilities.This year, the key note speaker for the function will be Preethi Srinivasa , founder of Soulfree, a a foundation in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai to restore, rehabilitate and reintegrate persons with disabilities into society .
Sulakshana Sawant, President of Padmini Foundation will be the Chief Guest for the function and Alka Phaldessai, State Executive Member, BJP will be the Guest of Honour.
Also, Minister of Social Welfare, Subhash Phaldessai, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Guruprasad Pawaskar and Secretary, Office of the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Taha Haaziq will be present on the occassion, that will begin at 9.30 a.m. at Sanjay Centre for Special Education in Porvorim.
“Every year we celebrate International Women’s Day, and this year too, after the success of Purple Fest, we would like to continue interactions with persons with disability with society. There is a need to highlight issues of persons with disabilities, as it helps us chalk out plans for the future,” said Guruprasad Pawaskar.
Various NGO’s from across the state and organisations have been invited to be part of this programme, thus making it inclusive for all.
Pawaskar added that the keynote speaker, Preethi Srinivas’s journey through life is inspiring, and the work she’s undertaking for the disabled through Soulfree has allowed persons with disability to live empowered and independent lives.
The 20,000 sq ft facility of Soulfree INSPIRE Centre is the first-of-its-kind integrated spinal rehabilitation in India- with an integrated spinal rehabilitation centre.
Srinivasan, is also the first woman with a 90% disability to have ever enrolled for a PhD programme at an IIT.She believes that the fight of women with significant impairments in India should continue to be highlighted.
