·
MUSTRun organised by the H-West Federation and
Wake Up Bandra.
·
More than 500 school children, Senior Citizens
& Physically Challenged participate
·
Focus on creating a Disabled-Friendly and Open-Defecation-free
H-West Ward
16th
February 2014, Mumbai. The H-West Federation and Wake Up
Bandra organised the third MUSTRun this morning in the suburb of Bandra. Over
400 Municipal
School children and Senior Citizens
raced down a 2 km route around the streets of Bandra while nearly 100 persons
with disability on wheelchairs and crutches powered down a cool sea-kissed 1 km
route.
MUSTRun this year saw the
launch of two important initiatives by the H-West Federation. The first one is
a campaign for a disabled-friendly H-West Ward in partnership with ADAPT,
formerly The Spastics Society of India. Speaking on the occasion, Neenu
Kewlani, crusader for accessibility for the disabled and a wheelchair user
herself, said “Persons with disability find it extremely difficult to
negotiate ordinary activities which able people take for granted, such as
visiting a bank or a restaurant or a cinema hall or even using a toilet.
Provision of access is the first change that needs to occur to make a
difference to this community that constitutes such a large percentage of the
population.” Varsha Hooja, Trustee & CEO, ADAPT, elaborating on the
project said that the campaign would start with a disability audit in the Ward
identifying institutions which do not have access facilities and then embarking
on a task of enrolment of these entities to make the necessary infrastructural
changes. She also mentioned that this project with the Federation was the first
for any Ward in Mumbai and hoped that schools would also introduce access
features for the differently abled including in toilets. 8 institutions in the
Ward that have made some initial changes to their infrastructure to enable
access to the disabled were honoured at the event.
Anandini Thakoor,
Chairperson of the H-West Federation, said that the Federation was proud to
have partnered with ADAPT for the initiative and emphasized its resolve to take
the campaign to fruition. She also outlined the initiative with Borkar Polymers
- a pilot project to end open defecation in a selected community in the Ward.
The project envisages a mobile toilet solution that will address the issue of
sanitation access as well as circumvent the problem of lack of maintenance and
lack of hygiene of existing stationary public toilets. Incidentally, Borkar
Polymers, had provided special toilets for the disabled participants at the
venue, which is arguably a first for a sporting event of this kind in the city.
Sr. Bindhu, Director of
Navjeet Community Centre attached to the Holy Family Hospital, the third cause
highlighted in MUSTRun, shed light on the empowering work of the organisation
amongst women, children and youth in the slums of the area as well as the new
initiatives taken up outside the area.
Participants at the event
were regaled by the antics of some supremely agile Afro-Acrobats who performed
some mindboggling stunts. The event also saw an enthralling magic show by Vinod
Rawat, the only disabled magician in the world. Sporting a Jaipur foot, Vinod
is an avid marathoner and trekker and combines his magic shows with
motivational talks.
MLC and Mumbai BJP chief,
Ashish Shelar and corporator Alka Kerkar, handed out prizes to the children.
The Lioness’ Club of Khar organised special prizes for the Senior
Citizens and Physically Challenged participants. Celebrity model, actor and
activist Sushama Reddy, interacted with the children and the disabled and
affirmed her solidarity with the cause.
For the third year
running, all the waste created during the event was collected to be recycled by
the Stree Mukti Sanghatana’s trained Parisar Bhagini workforce.
This year’s event was
supported by The Pilates and Altitude Training Studio, The Teenager Today and
St. Paul ’s Institute
of Communication Education (SPICE) besides numerous local institutions.
The H-West Federation is
a 20 year old association of citizens’ organisations and ALMs that seeks to
empower the citizens of the H-West Ward comprising Bandra, Khar and Santacruz
to address civic and other issues concerning the area and align with
like-minded initiatives in the city to encourage good governance and quality of
service delivery.
For further information, please
contact:
Anandini Thakoor 9821052670 anandinithakoor@yahoo.co.in
Naresh Karmalker
9833772721 nareshkarmalker@gmail.com
Vidya
Vaidya 9820020437 vidyavaidya@gmail.com
Thanks
& Regards,
Vikram
Kamble
Account Executive
Prana PR Pvt Ltd
Corporate
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