MANGALURU: Anil Bansal with visually challenged navigator Dikshith took the first place in the ‘BMW-Navnit Motors – Guiding Stars 2014’, a four-wheeler treasure hunt for specially-abled children, held on Sunday.
While the second place was bagged byNaveenCardoza who was along with visually challenged navigators RohanNayak andMeghana, the second runner up team was of Lester D’Souza who was guided by visually challenged navigator Ameena.
This is the fifth consecutive year that MangaloreCoastal Round Table 190 was organizing the event with the message “I cannot see, I cannot speak but I will guide you on your path”. During Guiding Stars treasure hunt, around 50 specially-abled children, from the Roman & Catherine School for the Blind, and SDMMangala School of Integrated Learning, Mangalore turned into navigators to guide drivers to their destinations.
The route map for the treasure hunt was only given in Braille, a format readable only by the visually challenged, who formed a part of every team. Each team could progress only after the driver and visually challenged child coordinated well enough to decipher the clues. In addition to this, the participants were surprised at certain points in the treasure hunt, to see speech and hearing challenged children enacting a certain personality or object. The challenge then turned out to be one of communicating through a language of signs in order to decipher the clue.
Mangalore South ML JR Lobo who flagged off the event congratulated the Mangalore Coastal Round table 190 for their contribution in the field of free public education. He further said MLA development fund of Rs 40 lakh that was budgeted for 17 schools and invited the Round Table to assist both in finance and execution of projects that were of immediate value.
BMW Navnit Motors GM-in-charge RajappaWaradh went on to affirm BMW’s commitment to the cause of free public education. MCRT 190 Chairman JairajShetty described the impact and awareness that this event was having on the community.
MCRT190 publicity convenor Neil Rodrigues made a presentation pointing out that Rs 17 lakhwas put in Government Higher Primary School, Mannagudda that MCRT190 adopted. He explained the infrastructure improvements like the science laboratory and the audio-visual room and also touched upon the upcoming projects like setting up of a computer lab at the school. He especially highlighted the offer of a sponsor – Mahesh PU College, Mangalore – to take free and voluntary English classes to the students of the same school.
Courtesy: Times of India