Deafblindness is a unique and complex disability. Sense International India (also known as Sense India) is the only national-level organisation supporting specialised services which enable deafblind children and adults to overcome the challenges caused by deafblindness. 95% of what we learn is through our eyes and ears. Imagine what it is like to be a person with deafblindness. Deafblindness is mainly caused in India through Rubella (German measles) which combines varying degrees of both hearing and visual impairment. All individuals with deafblindness experience extreme challenges with communication and mobility; as well most have additional physical and medical conditions to overcome. Persons with deafblindness invariably face severe neglect and discrimination owing to their inability to communicate and relate to the world. They are thus denied the basic human emotions of love and care and rights of education, medical care amongst other needs that are taken for granted by most of us. It is estimated that there are about 500,000 persons with deafblindness in India. Prior to the establishment of Sense India, in 1997, only 23 children with deafblindness received support in Mumbai but today we have been instrumental in bringing hope in the lives of more than 78,000 persons with deafblindness. We combine individual, corporate, institutional and government support to work with a growing network of a partner organisation. Our partners provide a wide range of services to identify deafblindness. We create opportunities for children and young adults with deafblindness through the home and centre-based services to learn communication and daily living skills and receive basic education and acquire income-generating skills which lead to family-based productive activities and independent living.

With its unique technical knowhow of the last 22 years in the field of deafblindness and multiple disabilities, Sense India uses a multi-pronged approach to achieve the project outcomes. This includes technical assistance to its partner NGOs and direct training of their staff to work with children and adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities. Sense India has specialised expertise in domains of deafblind communication, mobility, accessible information, assistive devices and rehabilitation. Working with children and adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities need specific training and skills and with only three teacher training centres (only one by the government) to cater to an estimated 500,000 individuals with deafblindness and multiple disabilities, it was a mammoth task for Sense International India to roll out services.

Sense India successfully developed its innovative approach to initiate and expand services to remote parts of the country with help of a network of grass-roots organizations and building their capacity to work with individuals with deafblindness and multiple disabilities making them self-reliant. This well planned consistent effort has enabled Sense India to reach out to more than 78,000 individuals with deafblindness and multiple disabilities in the last twenty two years. The partnership approach of directly working with local organizations has resulted into the setting of 59 projects in 22 states in a span of 22 years and is one of the most cost-effective and innovative models of service delivery for the deafblind population.

The impact of this cost-effective model is that, it does not lead to the creation of new institutions or infrastructure, rather facilitates and enables the stakeholders (like deafblind persons, their families, teachers, NGO partners and government organisations) to learn from each other strategically in developing services for deafblind population without duplication of efforts.

Our USP: We are the first and only non-governmental organisation to support the development of comprehensive services for persons with deafblindness throughout India. Sense India works with local, regional and national organisations to develop sustainable services for children and adults with deafblindness and we collaborate with the government at central and state levels. Our Head office is in Ahmedabad and we have offices in New Delhi and Bangalore and staff based out of Chennai and Goa.

We advocate for the rights of persons with deafblindness with the government and the biggest achievement has been recognition of ‘deafblindness’ in the recently passed Rights of Persons with Disability Act 2016. For the first time in history, deafblindness is recognized as a disability and rights of persons with deafblindness are now protected. Inclusion of vaccination for Rubella under the Universal Immunization Programme is another significant achievement of our advocacy initiatives. We are a member of several Central Government and State level advisory groups - states of Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Meghalaya have recognised deafblindness in its Disability Policy.

We are accredited to the United Nations: Due to our nation-wide initiatives, we now have consultative status on deafblindness.

Sense India has started to provide assistance in South-Asia: Based on expertise in the field of deafblindness in India, SII has also successfully initiated its intervention model outside India by partnering with leading organisations in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Malaysia and trained educators and established needs-based services for the deafblind population.

Introduction of Section 135 and Schedule VII of Companies Act 2013, has put the Corporate spending on socio-economic issues into the public eye. Sense India realises the important role played by the Corporate sector in the wellbeing and development of the society today. We understand that partnering with meaningful projects that bring real and measurable change at the grassroots level in the community, yields benefit for the Corporate in terms of increased employee retention, competitive advantage, positive business branding in eyes of public and stakeholders.

Sense India has an all-encompassing approach to partnership with the Corporate sector, we value the inputs from Corporate partner in our projects and ensure that our projects and activities are meeting the needs of the stakeholders. Sense India leverages Corporate capabilities and strategic resources of partnership to address the challenges faced by children and adults with deafblindness.

The activities of Sense India conform to clause (ii) of Schedule VII of the Companies Act-2013  - Promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocational skills especially among children, women, elderly, and the differently-abled and livelihood enhancement projects.

Corporate can partner with Sense India through any of the following means:

1. Project Funding
2. Training Support
3. Employee Engagement
4. Payroll Giving

Why Partner with Sense India:

• Pan India presence and outreach – reaching rural and urban areas of 22 states
• Highest standards of governance, transparency and reporting
• Achieving real and tangible impact, persevering for sustainable development
• Active involvement of company employees in interventions making them equal participants in the development