Iridium Interactive Blog » CauseanEffect

iridium Interactive Turns 11!

iridiumInteractive — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:03:41 +0000

On March 14, 2000, 11 years ago, iridium Interactive was born. From the days of its inception when we leveraged technology and the power of the internet to help those affected by the cyclone in Orissa in 2000 to today when we have expanded our operations to include projects in Nairobi, Kenya, we have come a long way. Along the way we have been associated with several organizations and bodies and have worked towards building a better tomorrow through our CSR arm, Cause an Effect Foundation. We have stayed true to our mission from Day 1, using technology to help a wide variety of for and non profit organizations solve their problems and develop new approaches to meet their goals.

On March 14 this year the birth anniversary of iridium was celebrated with much fanfare at the office. A list of over 600 employees past and present was displayed in the main hall and cake cutting was followed by experience sharing by Ms Bharathi Bharatam, who along with Sriram Bharatam has been with the company as the founding team right from the beginning. This is an especially proud day for us and we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been associated with iridium through these years. Here’s hoping that we will remain associated and continue to scale the heights of success for the years to come!

Mr Vinod cutting the 11th anniversary cake

The list of employees who helped make iridium the name it is today

Aide et Action South Asia signs up iridium Interactive as Social Media Partner

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:58:44 +0000

How powerful is the voice of the social public? It demonstrated considerable might during issues such as the Iran election, Haiti earthquake and the Pepsi refresh project. Now it’s time to use this medium for a much broader social change.

Aide et Action [South Asia], an organization working to empower people by providing quality education to all, has launched an initiative called Punni Ki Kahaniyan, a series of short films that uses the voice of a young girl to tell children stories built around the values of multiculturalism, communal harmony and education. The first of the series, an 18 minute film, shows children the bright side of cultural harmony and the pitfalls of ragging, bullying and racism. By showcasing the varied cultures that represent India through the eyes of schoolchildren, the film is a teaching aid that also opens the eyes of adults to the fact that we are one people and that a herd mentality that propagates racism and divide is to be shunned.

Support Punni through social media!

Aide et Action South Asia has partnered with iridium Interactive as a Social Media partner to create Awareness and Buzz for Punni Ki Kahaniyan and reach out to students, teachers, parents and the society at large. The objective is to start a strong movement that promotes cultural harmony through social understanding and integration. iridium Interactive is promoting and connecting with all the stakeholders using the social platforms like facebook, twitter, youtube, vimeo etc., to promote the film and supporting Aide et Action South Asia to take the message to millions of school children across India.

You can aid this mission by:

1. sharing the movie and/or showcasing it in your neighboring school

2. demonstrate your support on facebook and take this initiative to parents and educators, the key influencers of young children

3. actively sharing your ideas on how to increase the impact of this initiative

On 26^th October 2010, Punni ki Kahaniyan is formally launched at Ravindra Bharathi, Hyderabad with 1000 children representing 35 odd schools who will watch this movie and, we hope, learn the importance of unity. Sania Mirza, ace tennis player, is an enthusiastic supporter who is attending the launch of this event. Ravi Pratap Singh, Regional Director-Aide et Action South Asia, Sriram Bharatam, CEO and Founder at iridium Interactive and Ranga Reddy, RM-The Hindu would also be part of this event. Our endeavour is to reach out and promote this movie to as many children as possible and along the way, sensitise the general public so that they too imbibe these values and create an ecosystem that shuns regressive beliefs and promotes unity.

So come, join Punni as she takes the lead and tells children value driven stories that will make them better people.

Punni has been covered by The HIndu in today’s newspaper. Click here to read the full article. The Hindu is an official media partner in A.P for Punni Ki Kahaniyan. You can reach Punni on her facebook page and on her twitter account

For further details contact:
Mohammed Salahuddin
salaudin.m at iridiuminteractive dot com
+919989234334

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Lets Light a Candle in Remembrance of Erwadi-Save the Date, 6PM on 6th August, 2010

iridiumInteractive — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:14:41 +0000

Dear All,

It was on the 6th of August 2001, when at least two dozen hapless chained mentally ill were roasted alive at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu, when fire engulfed the Moideen Badusha Mental Home.

Sadly, when we enter the decadal year of Erwadi, we remain at Ground Zero to improve the lot of hapless tens of millions, suffering from one or other mental illness in the country. Needless to say, lakhs of them remain incarcerated at lunatic asylums, prisons, and street. Moreover, sufferers at the bottom of the pyramid-poor and homeless- suffer maximum and lead a life full of stigma, darkness and discrimination despite the fact that mental illnesses are largely preventable, treatable or manageable in most of the cases.

Friends, every cause needs a rallying point- 6th August, 2001, and Erwadi tragedy is the defining one for Mental Health Movement of India.

Let us all come together and Join hands together to observe 6th August, 2010 as India’s First Mental Health Awareness Day.

Request all of you to kindly participate in the “Light a Candle Program” at our premises at “6 pm on the 6th of August 2010″

Please take this First Baby Step in Creating a Purposeful Mental Health Movement

Team @
Cause an Effect Foundation,
8-3-1084/1&1A, Srinagar Colony,
Hyderabad – 500 073
Tel : +91 40 2373 0266, 6557 7602
Fax : +91 40 2373 0537

How Social Media has changed humanity?

iridiumInteractive — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:16:15 +0000

“It is our nature to be social”, true, and I could not help but wonder how social media has given a whole new meaning to the word “social”. It has opened doors to meet new people, make bigger communities, and most importantly provided a platform to talk your mind out. With the advent of Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and countless other social networks, least have we realized how this has metamorphosed us into digital beings.

Last week as I spoke at the NASSCOM Emerge Friday 2.0 and while sharing my experience on the Causeaneffect.org NGO initiative, it dawned onto me that social media has always been around, only its importance has accentuated in the last few years. Attending conferences all over the world and presenting the case of social media and the experiences of iridium Interactive, it was pretty apparent that social media has no barriers across countries, it is a unified digital revolution that has been transforming our lives, only under different names since more than a decade. How has it changed our lives has not been introspected yet.

Here are the some of the reasons how social media has changed our lives and why we should make the most of it.

1. It has made us more social, we know a lot more people than we would a few years back.

2. Larger networks- college friends, school friends, people we meet at social occasions, relatives, and friends met though friends, this used to be our typical networks, social media has exponentially increased our networks.

3. More vocal about your thoughts- Forums, blogs, tweets, status updates are allowing us to speak our mind, wondered why? Because we know we will be heard by some or many.

4. Enhances PR skills- you do not have to take PR lessons to talk to people on social media.

5. Converse with like minded people on these social networks.

6. Get in touch with thought leaders, influencers and even people who inspire you.

7. Reconnects with old connections- People you have lost in touch with since a decade can be traced from any corner of the world (provided they are on these networks themselves) on the wide world of social media.

8. Your virtual network is always ready to help. All it takes is to put forward a question and there you will have experts recommending the best to you.

9. Ease of companies to get in touch with their consumers and vis a vis.

10. Looking for a job or looking to hire someone, your professional network helps you find the best fit.

Social media brings out the extrovert you. All that matters in social media is your network, communities, connections and finally your discussions with them. Social media has reduced distances both for individuals and companies.

Have you seen a change in your social profile by social media, do post what you have gained from social media.

Image Source-Rosaura Ochoa from Flickr

DNA Mumbai Edition Feature on Social Media and the Web Do gooders- an interview with Sriram Bharatam

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:00:05 +0000

A web of do-gooders

R Krishna / DNA

Sunday, December 27, 2009 0:48 IST

Mumbai: Sriram Bharatam, founder and CEO, iridium Interactive, an internet consultancy firm based in Hyderabad, runs a non-profit called Cause an Effect Foundation. Last week, the foundation installed a water treatment facility in a village near Hyderabad. Bharatam, who was in the village to oversee the operations, started tweeting and updating his Facebook status message about what he saw there — the villagers, their culture and the curiosity they showed in the project.

Within a few hours, close to 100 people on his network responded, says Bharatam. “Initially, the comments were about how great the project was. Then, a few started asking more serious questions such as ‘What is reverse osmosis?’. I started getting into the details like the chlorine levels in the water which can cause disability, and that it takes Rs2 lakh to install a water treatment unit. It was then that five people came forward to donate money. In one day, I inspired these five people to give around Rs10 lakh.”

According to Bharatam, 10 years ago he would have had to put in a lot of effort convincing people. “Today, I am having a simple conversation and call to action is happening.”

The internet, especially social networking, is a great enabler for people who have a cause, but lack the wherewithal to get a large number of people to pay attention offline. Ask Ranjeet Walunj, a Mumbai-based professional, who started The Sapling Project this month. The project aims to get people all over the city to plant saplings (which were given away for free at the inaugral event) and nurture them for two years.

Walunj and his friend Satish Vijaykumar with whom he started the project, talked extensively about The Sapling Project on Twitter and Facebook. “The first level of contact with people we have is on social media,” says Walunj explaining why social media was central to The Sapling Project. “We could have opted for offline media, but the problem is that I cannot measure its impact. For example, I won’t know how many people will come for distribution. But in online media, I know exactly who is doing what. Measurability is an important reason for opting for social media.”

There was also an off-shoot. Following Walunj’s posts, bloggers from Chennai and Bangalore too got interested and started chapters of the Sapling Project in their cities.

Collaborative Tool
Social media can be used not just to raise money, spread the word or get people together. It’s a great tool for collaboration and drawing upon a diversity of expertise. IIT Bombay, for example, has built an online service called aAqua (aaqua.org) that allows farmers to post queries related to farming or allied activities (such as setting up a dairy).
According to Krithi Ramamritham of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at IIT Bombay, a set of experts from various Krishi Vigyan Kendras and some agricultural universities then provide solutions to the problems which the farmers can implement.

This is similar to Yahoo Answers, where you post any question, and someone from the community provides the answers. The key difference, Ramamritham points out, is that “both the farmers and experts are shy of computers.” Still, after about five years of operation, close to 15,000 people have registered with aAqua and now around 25,000 farmers get their answers on SMSes, says Ramamritham.

Social media’s “reach” however does not ensure success. Many causes that grow through tweets and pokes fizzle out quickly. Netra Parikh who works with Pinstorm, a Mumbai-based online marketing agency, and an active Tweeter, says, “I myself have experienced that. Causes tend to fizzle out due to lack of consistency, determination, and focus. But most important, one needs to own that cause.”

Beyond I, Me, Myself
Bharatam agrees. “Conversation is merely the trigerring point to start anything. And social media is where conversations happen. But you have to follow up. A casual conversation should turn into a serious conversation, then into an organised conversation, which finally will result in concrete action.” Bharatam who started Cause an Effect as a website to raise money to help victims of the 1999 Orissa cyclone, says that while the online medium makes things easier, it is also very demanding. “Internet itself was a new concept in India when I first started the website. People wanted to know who I was and how they could be sure I wouldn’t run away with the money. It took a week for me to convince people about the cause. Initially we were asking people to send in cheques. But that was taking too long. So we set up a system where people could wire the money. Next, someone suggested that we put up a payment gateway so people could pay with credit cards. I didn’t even know what an online payment gateway was!” Bharatam was just an ordinary citizen with a regular job when he started the website. But it turned out to be a 24/7 job. “I don’t know whether people have that kind of commitment. If you look at Twitter or Facebook right now, it is all about I, me, myself. There is no agenda. There is no focused activity. If there’s a single point agenda, people will respond to you.”

In the press !!!

iridiumInteractive — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:18:15 +0000

Well Well..finally I’ve made it in life !!!! My pic is on the newspaper. You can see me in the paperclipping ,attending a call :). This report was featured on Deccan Post dated Sep18, 2008

Its my privilege to talk about the other three you see here in the clipping …. Sriram, CEO of iridium Interactive, the company I am part of and proud to be associated with. As a person who began my career with NGOs , what attracted me to iridium Interactive in the first place was the importance the company accords to social responsibility – be it through the various social welfare activities of CauseanEffect or by training and employing disabled people or as crusaders of web accessibility. And Sriram has been at the helm of it all ..

You also see Rakesh, my colleague, who works as a software engineer and Raj Kishore who handles the front office. Guys with the most pleasant disposition, they really are an inspiration – the way they have handled adversities in life and emerged winners are perfect examples of what disabled people can do given the right opportunities. Three fantastic people ….read on to know more about them and the place we all work ….

CEO of iridium Interactive wins prestigious 'Udyog Rattan' Award

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:10:55 +0000

September 2008, New Delhi: Mr. Sriram Bharatam, CEO & Founder of iridium Interactive Limited, has been awarded the ‘Udyog Rattan Award’ by the Institute of Economic Studies, New Delhi, one of the country’s premier research institutes. This honor was conferred on Mr. Bharatam in recognition of his contributions towards Industrial development. In the same function, iridium Interactive Ltd, also received the Excellence award for outstanding performance in Productivity, Quality, Management and Innovation.

Mr. Bharatam is also the founder of the not-for-profit Causeaneffect Foundation (CnE). The Causeaneffect project was first launched to help the victims of the super cyclone that devastated Orissa in the year 1999. The same team then moved on to generate funds for the victims of the Gujarat Earthquake and Andhra Floods, as well as the Tsunami-affected victims across Tamil Nadu & Andhra. In all Causeaneffect projects, iridium Interactive (ii) functions as the commercial interactive agency, and has been highly successful in generating awareness and publicity. The ii management and employees are actively involved in all the initiatives of Causeaneffect, giving generously of their time and expertise.

Mr. Bharatam himself made an abrupt departure from a very promising consultancy career to establish CnE. An avid believer in the World Wide Web, he used the power of internet to raise significant funds for the cyclone victims & to build a global community of 18 million in just 45 days. This effort led him to win the world’s prestigious Kauffman Community Award for ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ in the year 2004. Known for his creativity and innovation, he currently spearheads the Web Accessibility and Usability Initiative, i.e. making websites accessible for the differently-abled.

Accepting the Udyog Rattan award, Mr. Bharatam said that both the awards rightfully belong to management, staff and well wishers of iridium Interactive who have contributed towards making the company a success story.
The award was presented at India Habitat Center, New Delhi. The ceremony was graced by the Governor of Sikkim, Bhism Narain Singh, Ex-governor ,TamilNadu ,G.V.G.Krishna murthy,Former Election Commissioner and other dignitaries.

The Udyog Rattan Award and Award for Excellence is conferred by the Institute of Economic Studies every year. IES (http://iesindia.org) was established in 1980 by a group of economists, parliamentarians and industrialists who came together to study and discuss problems concerning various aspects of the economy and economic development of India and offer their expert advice and services.

The previous recipients of this prestigious award include Vijay Mallaya, R Krishna Bajaj, H S Singhania, Dr B K Modi, B R Chopra, Renuka Ramnath and H P Nanda.

Over the years the institute has been patronised and inspired by the likes of Pranab Kumar Mukerjee, Khursheed Alam Khan, N D Tiwari, A K Panja, V N Gadgil, Madhavsing Solanki, Giani Zail Singh, Shankar Dayal Sharma, Kumudben Joshi, M Arunachalam, P Shiv Shankar, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ram Rao Adik, M Hidayatullah and Rabi Ray.

About Iridium Interactive

iridium Interactive (ii) specializes in offering unique user-centric e-business solutions. With a presence across three continents, it has been at the forefront in integrating strategy, design and technology to build unique, robust user-centric e-business solutions. We take the time to understand our client’s goals and develop interactive solutions to meet them. Our talented team has worked on a variety of disciplines for a multitude of clients drawn from various industries, and has a number of award-winning works to its credit. In the year 2007 iridium Interactive was chosen by NASSCOM as one of the top 100 Innovators of India.

iridium Interactive operates in the digital virtual world – but with the feet firmly entrenched in the physical real world. The raison de’ etre is social responsibility. And that’s the core genesis.
Speaking on this occasion Sriram said, “We believe that every citizen has a responsibility to give back to the society, and we at iridium Interactive have steadfastly followed this adage. Our socially responsible approach is our differentiator – bringing smiles to more faces, and winning us a few accolades along the way. We translate our ideology into action in many ways: we advocate web accessibility in the virtual world; while working towards up-lifting the disabled in the real world through our non-profit arm, Cause an Effect foundation.”

Cause an Effect (CnE) is an award winning Not-for-Profit organization with international repute focusing on Disability, Organic farming and Livelihood. The organization harnesses the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for sustainable and equitable development, to enable the poor and the marginalized communities to transform their lives.

The process of empowering disabled is an end-to-end value chain that spans Iridium and Cause an effect, and is done through multiple initiatives. Cause an Effect has conducted disability camps bringing together the State Governments, transport authorities and medical personnel to issue 5000 disability certificates to the differently abled. It has also conducted livelihood trainings that have empowered thousands of people with financial viability, and workshops in education and English language to bring the needy community closer to the mainstream.

iridium has also been instrumental in promoting ‘web accessibility’ for visually impaired and motor disabled people, enabling them to access technology- and information-related products through the use of Internet. The company creates awareness amongst website owners (government and private) on the need to make sites accessible to disabled users, and also on promoting Internet usage within the disabled sections of the society.

About Sriram Bharatam

Sriram started his career with Hewlett-Packard JV in the Strategy & Consulting practice, rising quickly through the ranks. He left a very promising career to establish a non-profit to aid victims of a natural calamity that occurred in Orissa, India in late 1999. An avid believer of the power of the world wide web, he used the power of internet to raise significant sum of funds for Cyclone victims & build a global community of 18 million in just 45 days through CauseanEffect foundation. This effort led him to win the world’s prestigious Kauffman Community Award for ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ in the year 2004.

With this confidence he founded India’s first full-cycle interactive agency, iridium Interactive in 1999. The focus of the organization has been to empower both corporate and their end clients through the medium of the internet. Today his team works with leading corporate in nine verticals across 3 continents. Known for creativity and innovation, he is currently spearheading the Web Accessibility initiative i.e making the web sites accessible for visually challenged in India. He is an alumni of MIT with bachelors in Engineering and Masters in Business Administration & a nominee of Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’.

CEO of iridium Interactive receives the prestigious 'Udyog Rattan' award.

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:47:59 +0000

15th September 2008, New Delhi: Mr. Sriram Bharatam, CEO & Founder of iridium Interactive Limited, has been awarded the ‘Udyog Rattan Award’ by the Institute of Economic Studies, New Delhi, one of the country’s premier research institutes. This honour was conferred on Mr. Bharatam in recognition of his contributions towards Industrial development. In the same function, iridium Interactive Ltd, also received the Excellence award for outstanding performance in Productivity, Quality, Management and Innovation

Mr. Bharatam is also the founder of the not-for-profit CauseanEffect Foundation (CnE). The CauseanEffect project was first launched to help the victims of the super cyclone that devastated Orissa in the year 1999. The same team then moved on to generate funds for the victims of the Gujarat Earthquake and Andhra Floods, as well as the Tsunami-affected victims across Tamil Nadu & Andhra. In all CnE projects, iridium Interactive (ii) functions as the commercial interactive agency, and has been highly successful in generating awareness and publicity. The ii management and employees are actively involved in all the initiatives of CnE, giving generously of their time and expertise.
Mr. Bharatam himself made an abrupt departure from a very promising consultancy career to establish CnE. An avid believer in the World Wide Web, he used the power of internet to raise significant funds for the cyclone victims & to build a global community of 18 million in just 45 days. This effort led him to win the world’s prestigious Kauffman Community Award for ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ in the year 2004. Known for his creativity and innovation, he currently spearheads the Web Accessibility and Usability Initiative, i.e. making websites accessible for the differently-abled.

Mr.Sriram Bharatam accepting the Udyog Rattan Award from Sri. G.V.G. Krishna Murthy, Former Election Commissioner and Dr.Bhishm Naraian Singh, Former Governor of Assam andTamil Nadu.

Accepting the Udyog Rattan award, Mr. Bharatam said that both the awards rightfully belong to management ,staff and well wishers of iridium Interative who have contributed towards making the company a success story.

The award was presented at India Habitat Center, New Delhi. The ceremony was graced by the Governor of Sikkim, Bhism Narain Singh, Ex-governor ,Tamil Nadu, G.V.G Krishna Murthy ,former Election Commissioner and other dignitaries.

The previous recipients of this prestigious award include Vijay Mallaya, R Krishna Bajaj, H S Singhania, Dr B K Modi, B R Chopra, Renuka Ramnath and H P Nanda.

About iridium Interactive

iridium Interactive operates in the digital virtual world – but out feet are firmly entrenched in the physical real world. Our raison de’ etre is social responsibility. And thats the core genesis.

Speaking on this occasion Sriram said, “We believe that every citizen has a responsibility to give back to the society, and we at iridium Interactive have steadfastly followed this adage. Our socially responsible approach is our differentiator – bringing smiles to more faces, and winning us a few accolades along the way. We translate our ideology into action in many ways: we advocate web accessibility in the virtual world; while working towards up-lifting the disabled in the real world through our non-profit arm, Cause an Effect foundation.”

CauseanEffect (CnE) is an award winning Not-for-Profit organization with international repute focusing on Agriculture, Women, Health, Livelihood, Disability, Child care & Education, Animal Care and Environment.The organization harnesses the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for sustainable and equitable development, to enable the poor and the marginalized communities to transform their lives.The genesis of the Foundation was during the cyclone that wreaked havoc in Orissa. Natural disasters that followed: the earthquake in Gujarat in 2000, cyclone in Andhra in 2001, the tsunami in 2004, were all instances in which we tried to make a difference.

The process of empowering disabled people is an end-to-end value chain that spans iridium and CnE, and is done through multiple initiatives. CnE has conducted disability camps bringing together the State Governments, transport authorities and medical personnel to issue 5000 disability certificates to the differently abled. It has also conducted livelihood trainings that have empowered a thousand people with financial viability, and workshops in education and English language to bring the differently-abled community closer to the mainstream and services on offer through the internet.

ii has also been instrumental in promoting ‘web accessibility’ for visually impaired and motor disabled people, enabling them to access technology- and information-related products through the use of Internet. The company creates awareness amongst website owners (government and private) on the need to make sites accessible to disabled users, and also on promoting Internet usage within the disabled sections of the society.

About Mr. Sriram Bharatam

With this confidence he founded India’s first full-cycle interactive agency, iridium Interactive in 1999. The focus of the organization has been to empower both corporates and their end clients through the medium of the internet. Today his team works with leading corporates in nine verticals across 3 continents. Known for creativity and innovation, he is currently spearheading the Web Accessibility initiative i.e making the web sites accessible for visually challenged in India. He is an alumni of MIT with bachelors in Engineering and Masters in Business Administration & a nominee of Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’.

Agroweb solutions –an arena less explored

iridiumInteractive — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:23:16 +0000

Agriculture provides the principle means of livelihood for about 60% of India’s population. Agriculture remains the largest economic sector in our country despite a steady decline in its contribution to GDP. Taking a cue from other industries that are now leveraging the power of IT, National academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad conducted an Agroweb workshop.

The work shop offered a platform create awareness of the power of IT/web technologies and how it can be leveraged to revitalize agricultural Industry. Sriram and Nishant attended the session, representing iridium Interactive.

Sriram was also one of the speakers and spoke on Web Standards, Technologies and Standardization. The talk started off well with the audience clued on to the jazz of the presentation but it hit the note when Sriram started talking about the Rural initiatives through CauseanEffect, e Learning bringing insurance closer to rural people, Case Studies of using Web 2.0 to solve business problems for Maruti, NASSCOM, Escorts and ITC e-Choupal and delivery mechanisms through examples of films made to educate people on alternative livelihoods post tsunami.

Agriculture and its audience need to be understood to use technology to bring value close to the rural people. There are so many initiatives that can change lives… eLearning for Agricultural practices, banking and insurance facilities for rural people, latest trends and machinery in farming etc. Hoping this workshop will help generate ideas for rural betterment.

Computerizing Disability camps – pilot camp held at Tandur, Ranga Reddy District

iridiumInteractive — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:58:17 +0000

CauseanEffect has been conducting disability Camps, contact programs aimed at alleviating the problems of fellow citizens – and enable the differently abled with the Disability Certificate from the Government.This Disability Certificate is a ‘fundamental right’ of the differently abled citizen in India – that helps the holder obtains special pass concessions from the Road Transport & Railways.

The camps conducted by CauseanEffect at various towns/villages in Ranga Reddy District have helped in bringing all the different government bodies together under one roof (shamiana) – whereby the time period for the Certificate processing was cut short from a tedious 3-6 month wait to a 3 hour speedy process.

Taking another step forward in this process, CnE put up a proposal to further streamline the process by introducing computerisation, so that each camp can benefit more number of people. The plan of action proposed was approved by the district collector of Ranga Reddy District.The pilot camp was held on September 5th,2008 at Tandur, RangaReddy District and had the involvement and supervision of top level bureaucrats and government offcials – Mrs. Chaya Ratan, Principal Secretary, Mrs. Anita Rajendran, Commissioner-Disability Mr. Dhana Kishore – I.A.S., collector , Ranga Reddy District, Mr. Sudhakara Reddy, State project manager- Disability program (SERP),Mr. K. Rama Krishna – P.D., DRDA –IKP-Rangareddy District and Dr. Permanas A.D. ,Department of Disabled, Rangareddy district. CnE had already coordinated with Anganwaadis for distribution of slips. The CnE Volunteers along with the support of seven volunteers from iridium Interactive ensured that 41 disabled people with various levels of disablility, various types of disability -orthopaedic, mnetal,Visual, speech and hearing were awarded what is their fundamental right -the disability certificate.The volunteers ensured smooth flow of the process at various levels – at the help desk to explain the process to the visitors, for entering the data into the computers,for directing the people to the respective sections of disability and for dispatch of the cards.The CauseanEffect team ensured the presence and clearance from the necessary authorities of Government Bodies. The sheer joy on the faces of fellow citizens – on receiving their Disability Certificates at the Camp was a truly humbling experience for the CnE &iridium Interactive team, indeed encouraging the team to work that much harder to bring about a few tears less.As one of the volunteers put it very aptly :

It was an overwhelming experience; we had great fun helping them out, directing them and making them feel comfortable. The cheer on their faces on receiving the certificates actually made us feel reenergized after a long days travel and work.