Children at the Indian Association for the Blind on a bicycle rally in Madurai on Friday. | Photo Credit: S. James more-in For many of the children at Indian Association for the Blind, their dream of riding bicycles, which once looked unachievable to them, came true on Friday with the donation of 10 tandem bicycles by Amway India as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Inaugurating a rally of the tandem bicycles to mark international White Cane Day, which falls on October 15, Roshan Fathima, general secretary, IAB, said that the cycles helped the visually-challenged children realize their dream of riding bicycles with a sighted person on the pilot seat and the visually-challenged person as the stoker. “In some places in some of the advanced countries, systems are put in place for the partly visually-challenged persons to ride bicycles on their own. However, in our country, tandem bicycles seem to be the best option,” she said. Apart from helping the dream of visually-challenged children to ride bicycles, she added that riding the cycles would also help in increasing their self-confidence and give them a sense of independence and being part of an inclusive society. M. Muthupandi, Class 11 student, who also participates in cricket tournaments for the visually-challenged, said he was immensely delighted to ride the bicycle, which he was doing for the first time. Sandeep Prakash, senior vice-president (West and South), Amway India, said that the excitement among the children during the short ride was palpable. “Our association with IAB goes for nearly 17 years. We are hopeful of doing many such initiatives to assist visually-challenged children in the future,” he said.

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