SABAL Centre in Noamundi has transformed the lives of over 5000 PWDs

Noamundi: SABAL Centre in Noamundi, located in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand has been a catalyst in transforming the lives of over 5000 PWDs (Persons with Disabilities). Established as a joint venture between Tata Steel Foundation and Enable India, ‘A Centre For Abilities: SABAL’, has been instrumental in shortening the gap between PWDs and rest of the world.

Since its inception in December 2017, SABAL has conducted several skill development trainings and workshops to groom PWDs and to make them employable. So far, the centre has organised courses like Training for Trainers Programme, disability awareness workshops, digital literacy programmes, career awareness workshops, foundation course in computer and employability among others.

Apart from these, other initiatives undertaken at the centre include awareness workshops for developing ecosystems, employer round tables, activities of daily living programmes, felicitation of PWDs & individuals/NGOs doing exemplary work in various sector, workshop for parents, distribution of artificial limbs in association with Lions Club, NGO Workshops connecting with different organisations & individuals across eastern India and linkage of PWDs to existing Government Schemes such as the pension scheme.

“I learnt a lot through the training programme organised by SABAL on using Google applications for business. I now feel comfortable accessing several such applications to improve my productivity in my job. I would be delighted to attend more such trainings”, says Mr Jayachandran T, Manager at SBI, Tamil Nadu, who recently attended one of the training programmes offered by SABAL for persons with vision impairment.

The centre has imparted direct training to 165 PWDs at the centre and a Disability Immersion Programme has been conducted for over 85 professionals working in corporates. Foundation course in computers for persons with vision impairment, Employability Foundation Course and Entrepreneurship Development Programme are few of the flagship courses conducted by the centre to groom PWDs for corporate jobs.

Creating a level playing field for PWDs is one of the main objectives of SABAL. As a major breakthrough, two candidates- Ms Usha Kumari and Mr Sharmendra Kumar from the Employability Foundation Training conducted last year have secured job opportunities in Amazon as Station Support Associates. Till date, over 3000 PWDs have been registered with SABAL out of which 2000 are from Noamundi and Jagannathpur.