Kavya lost her eyesight due to stone injury while playing as a child

Recently a group of visually impaired girls etched their names in Indian history by running their first time Full marathon! Kavya was one of the finishers at NammaBenngaluru Marathon on Oct 21st and it makes me very proud !

Accompanying her to finish line was my colleague from IBM,  Nandish Kumar, who has dedicated several hours to support the trainings.

Dr Rajneet from ColumbiaAsia Hospitals, provided good support with picking up nutritious food for her and ensuring they visually impaired had access to it. He has also done a few training runs with Kavya.  She was provided with new running tshirts, running tights and sports bra. We would either do breakfast or dinner together on most training days.

Kavya is a 19 yr old visually impaired girl whom I met at Samarthanam, HSR. She was recommended to me by her wall climbing instructor as a very strong athlete. Samarthanam also has a sports facility providing her with adequate wall climbing training. One fine day, she called me herself that she was keen to join running. I gladly agreed :- )  She has been very regular and consistent.  Since she joined later part of training, we still have work to do with her.

 During her childhood days, a kid threw a stone at her while playing, because of which she completely lost sight in one eye.

Her Interests include Wall climbing and running Marathons ! 

Due to her progress and achievements in sporting activities (wall climbing, long distance running), she is completely inclined towards sports and intends to pursue a career in this field.

She was placed 3rd at the national level for wall climbing for visually impaired.

She has been selected to participate in an upcoming international wall-climbing event in France.

Her father is into agriculture and her mom and younger brother lend him a helping hand.They are supporting her to pursue her dreams.

She completed her 10th in a normal school from her native place, Tumkur and joined Samarthanam institute 6 months back.

She has recently undergone a 3 months’ course in technical and sector based skill training at Samarthanam’s Livelihood Resource Centre for the disabled. Although she intends to pursue intermediate education (PUC/11th and 12th) in the future, currently, she is seeking employment.

She is ready to forego her education at this juncture, depending on her progress in sports and is extremely confident and determined to succeed.

Wishing her All the best for the upcoming race !

#VisuallyImpaired #MarathonTraining #PinkathonDayBengaluru #NammaBengaluru #PinkathonTraining #Live2Inspire

Blog credit: Rahul, Bhumika