Newsletter Highlights
- Annual Event 2022, Announcement of 10 Winners of AT Hackathon
- SOI signed with Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Govt of India
- Launch of VOSAP AT Acceleration Fund of $ 1 Million
- 2 AT Exhibitors added: Smart glass, manual bed recliner. Subsidy available
- Identification of 3 Winners of AT Hackathon completed
Dear Friends,
A Very Happy New Year 2023, Happy Makar Sankranti, Happy Pongal, Happy Bihu and Happy Lohri to you and your loved ones. We are very pleased to share VOSAP impact, Updates of International AT Hackathon and Enablement of 775 Specially Abled People in November – December 2022, putting smiles on ~4,000 faces.
1. Annual Event and Announcement of Top 10 Winners of International AT Hackathon
To commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, On Dec 3, 2022 VOSAP celebrated its Annual Event. The live event was attended globally, virtually by 800+ Volunteers, Donors, and invited Guests from the US and India.
Dr. Chintan Vaishnav, Mission Director of NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), joined live as the Chief Guest. He was impressed with the compassion and nuances of the Top 10 innovators and is looking forward to start collaborative initiatives with VOSAP in the AT Sector per SOI signed in November 2022.
Pranav Desai, the Founder, presented updates for 2022 specifically the geographic spread of VOSAP Impact in 11 states of India and 1 state in the US. He expressed how VOSAP has changed lives of 14,500+ people so far and brought smiles to 75,000+ faces with its Advocacy, Enablement and various initiatives.
VOSAP Strategic Donors and Grand sponsors of the Annual Event, Founders of Sarva Mangal Family Trust, Shri Manubhai and Rikaben Shah, also joined the event, motivated the team, and expressed their satisfaction to learn about VOSAP’s outstanding impact. They announced $:$ Matching Challenge of US $500,000 to support the goal of creating a $1 Million VOSAP AT Acceleration Fund.
VOSAP announced the Top 10 Winners of the International Assistive Technology Hackathon. The Winners showcased their patentable, innovations for improving the lives of Persons with Determination (PoD), Specially Abled People (SAP).
2.VOSAP signs Statement of Intent (SOI) with Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Govt of India
Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) is Government of India’s flagship mission to create and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country. Hon Prime Minister is Chairperson of NITI Aayog.
Voice of SAP is very encouraged for the opportunity to collaborate, be a transformation partner to promote innovation in the disability sector, be knowledge partner and provide inputs per SOI (Statement of intent) signed with Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog. VOSAP’s AT Innovators will have access to 67 incubation centers and ecosystem of AIM.
3. Enablement Events: Lunawada, Jodhpur, Palanpur
Lunawada : On Dec 17, 2022, VOSAP enabled 106 Hearing impaired Children (between age 6 to 10) at Lunawada, Gujarat with WeHear, patented Hearing Aids with bone conductivity. We witnessed around 500+ happy faces of parents, special educators, beneficiaries, volunteers and invited guests.
The Collector of Mahisagar District, Shri Bhavin Pandya joined the event as Chief Guest. He appreciated the initiative undertaken by VOSAP and congratulated VOSAP Founder for taking this mission to the Mahisagar District. He also assured to work closely for Specially Abled People in next couple years in response to appeal from VOSAP founder.
The hearing device of VOSAP’s Partner and AT Exhibitor, WeHear is helping hearing impaired children to listen and then speak with training provided to them as how to use device. This early intervention with hearing device will help these 106 children get their hearing ability as per early audio gram test results done by government officers. This eliminates need for costly surgical interventions.
Jodhpur: On December 24 2022, VOSAP enabled 70 Specially Abled People at Jodhpur, during its inaugural event in Rajasthan.
Hon.Union Minister of Govt of India, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawatji joined the event as the Chief Guest along with other invited guests like Mayor of the city.
VOSAP Founder Pranav Desai and Volunteers, Team joined the event virtually. Rajasthan Har Ek ke Liye, an initiative under VOSAP Jodhpur Chapter focuses on making Jodhpur completely accessible and inclusive for all, UDID cards for all the SAP in Jodhpur and further in Rajasthan helping them receive benefits of various government schemes and programmes for their betterment.
Palanpur: On December 31, VOSAP enabled 70 Specially Abled People with Sewing Machine, Tricycle, Smartphone, Smartcane,etc.
VOSAP Founder and team joined the event Virtually. Various Volunteers and team members of Partner oranization Blind People’s Association, also joined the event virtually and in person. VOSAP Founder shared how VOSAP is enabling and empowering SAP with Assistive Devices, making them self dependent, live with dignity and contribute to economic expansion by becoming tax payers.
We are proud to share that 500 people received gift of vision during Nov – Dec. Also several beneficiaries received assistive devices directly from our vendors, outside of the mass distribution events.
4. New Exhibitors at VOSAP’s 3D Virtual Assistive Technology Exhibition
We are excited to share that we have added new Exhibitors to our Assistive Technology Exhibition.
Creativiti Council: Creativi Council is a Kerala based company that develops innovative and affordable products for Bedridden, Elderly and Palliative care. Their primary product CiCARE is an innovative self-operated bed recliner for bed ridden patients.
Anyone can apply online to receive this highly subsidized product by VOSAP.
SHG Technologies has created SMART VISION GLASSES, a wearable device for the blind/visually impaired using Artificial Intelligence, Machine Vision, and Machine Learning. The device has an electronic brain (artificial intelligence) which transforms their dark world into a more interactive, interesting and independent world. Over 1100 blind people have benefitted so far and now VOSAP will offer it on its website as a highly subsidized, to approved beneficiaries.
To learn in detail about their products, connect with them, visit their booth at VOSAP Assistive Technology Exhibition on events.voiceofsap.org
5. Announcement of Top 3 Winners:
To accelerate innovation in Assistive Technology, VOSAP organized the International Hackathon on Assistive Technology in 2022 with LD College of Engineering which then expanded largely with AKTU (India’s #1 technology University with 763 colleges) and we received participation of 114 teams (~500 students) from 11 states in India and CA, USA. Our expert grand jury from AT Industry, Academia and Incubation, identified top 3 winners after months of continuous evaluation of entries and multiple rounds of presentations.
Congratulations to All the Winners!!!
All the Entries received were very unique and had a lot of potential. We heartily Congratulate all the 500 Participants of the International Assistive Technology Hackathon. All the Participants would also receive Certificate of Participation from Voice of SAP.
VOSAP with its partners will now support selected teams for patent filing, incubation etc. for accelerated entry to global markets to help millions of Specially Abled People.
–> Details of the updates are on VOSAP website too so please visit us. We believe these updates will inpisre you to take ACTION. Join us as a volunteer, innovator, advocate for rights and/or donor to expand our collecitve impact, globally.
