“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.”~Elizabeth Andrew
We are excited to share the story of Shri Prasanna Kumar, who was inspired by the vision of VOSAP Founder, and became a Volunteer and is now a part of the Executive Team to contribute towards empowerment of Specially Abled People.
Prasannaji hails from California, USA and has been with Voice of SAP since the beginning of the organization. It all started in 2014, when Prasannaji met Mr.Pranav Desai at their office event and learnt about Voice of SAP.
Mr. Desai shared his vision to advocate, educate and sensitize people about disability, problems, challenges faced by SAP and working towards removing social stigma. Learning about Mr. Desai’s vision, and the fact that he himself being a SAP, is trying to do something for his community, Prasannaji was inspired by his passion and commitment and joined the VOSAP Mission.
On being asked why he was motivated to join the mission, He shared, “After I met Mr. Desai, I discussed this with my wife and what hit me was that we are all temporarily abled. It was the moment that made me realize we have to do a lot in the disability sector. The fact that Voice of SAP was unlike any other NGO, where they raise funds or donations or wanted money, what Voice of SAP was trying to do is to sensitize people about Disability and ask them to join and make them part of this mission. I thought this was a really meaningful activity that I would like to associate myself with and obviously there was a lot to do, hence I joined Voice of SAP.”
Prasannaji took this mission to his friends and family, and motivated people to contribute to this cause by volunteering, donating to the mission. He inspired his family, who are into the movie industry and they volunteered, creating a short film on the importance of Accessibility for Voice of SAP. Here is the video of the short film made by them.
Over Years, Prasannaji has participated in various activities, events and initiatives of Voice of SAP. Being a tech leader himself, he has shared his valuable experience and expertise, and contributed immensely to make our tech initiatives and digital tools stronger. He and his wife Anupamaji Volunteered during the Art from Heart Contest in connecting and communicating with Artists. He contributed to the launch of Assistive Technology Exhibition where he was working with the VOSAP tech team to onboard new exhibitors. He also was leading the Salesforce implementation team for VOSAP and provided his valuable insights.
On being asked how his experience has been, He shared “Art from Heart was the most close to heart and was a huge and impactful event that none of us had anticipated. I was able to attract passionate people and donors to come and join Voice of SAP. What drove me was that I could see the impact the Voice of SAP is doing from very close. In some organizations, even though you are Volunteer, you don’t really get to see where the Value is being Given but in Voice of SAP I could see that”
He further shared,”My experience with Voice of SAP has been very satisfying. In the beginning when we started working, everyone had only one goal in mind, everyone was working towards one single goal and each of the person was a volunteer. They were all doing a selfless act and that was very satisfying to see. I felt very content to work with people where no one was working for monetary gain or something, but rather for self satisfaction. As a donor and as a volunteer, it is the result, impact that matters. Whatever you contribute Tan(Body), Man(Mind), Dhan(Money), when you put all things together and you get the desired results, that is the content feeling that motivates you to do more.”
On being asked what He would like to tell other people regarding the cause, He shared,”Take the message home that we are all temporarily abled, think that whenever we are young or when we get old we might become PwD, by accident or by age. Hence be compassionate, kind and do what you can do to improve, better the life of SAP.”
On being asked what message he would like to give to SAPs, He Shared,”In this current Kalyuga, there are tons of opportunities out there for you to leverage and many organizations wants to do more, make sure there are equal opportunities for PwD.Your Abilities are much more compared to what a normal person could have so don’t lose hope, reach out for help and Voice of SAP is always there to walk the path with you.”
It always inspires and motivates us to see the amazing contribution that our volunteers make in changing lives of Specially Abled People everyday and their compassion and empathy that drives this mission. We are thankful to all our VOSAPians for keeping up this spirit and making this world a better and empowered place for all.
