As we move forward in our journey of meeting inspirational guests who have challenged their exteriors and done impactful work to make the world a better place, I came across this week's guest Preethi Srinivasan. I was preparing my son for his final exam of General Knowledge, when I came across a chapter about the most inspirational physically challenged people of India and there I got to know about Preethi's incredibly inspiring story Here's her story: Preethi is a TEDx speaker, Founder of "Soulfree ''.She has received many awards and accolades like Kalpana Chawla Award, Women Achiever of the year 2022-23, with many other prestigious awards for the incredible work in rehabilitation of people with Spinal Cord Injury.
Preethi is the face and voice of people with "Spinal Cord Injury" in India. She was a prodigy kid, an active teen who was captain of Tamil Nadu women's cricket team in the 90's who returned to India from the US to play for the country, but life had other plans for her. A national-level swimmer, state-level cricketer, and excellent student, Preethi suffered a spinal cord injury at the age of 18 while playing on the beach which left her paralyzed below the neck. She was heavily impacted due to Spinal cord injury (SCI). For 2 years, she was bedridden not coming out of her house, she was heart broken and felt the loss of her identity.
She struggled to complete her studies and her basic right to education was questioned after the accident but with her grit and resilience she is today India's first women with 90% disability who is pursuing PhD from IIT Madras in social and humanities department. She is breaking barriers and paving way for other people with disability to live a life of respect and dignity. She is doing commendable work at her Integrated Spinal Rehabilitation Centre at Tiruvannamalai.
At the center she along with her team is helping people with Spinal Cord Injury in physiological, psychological and socio-economic ways. Soulfree INSPIRE Centre offers International Standard of Care, free of Cost to those living below the line of poverty. The center had offered around 59000 services last year which include Ayurvedic treatment, computer training, psychological counselling sessions, dental services, entrepreneurship training program, sports therapy and many more such services. In Preethi's words they help people with SCI to fall back in love with love again, to find their lost identity and believe in themselves. Preethi is recognised as the face and voice of people with Spinal Cord Injury in India but she rightly desires to see more representation of people with disability in government departments who can understand the real issues of people with disability and work on them with empathy.
Soulfree's dream is to create an inclusive village where people with severe disabilities like SCI and others from different walks of life, who have become disenamoured with material life can join hands to create a symbiotic and soulful existence together. The aim is to bring together various marginalized segments of society to create an exemplary ecosystem that is based on celebrating the inherent diversity of life. She wishes to share her framework of Soulfree INSPIRE center with the government and have more such centers in every State of India. Preethi has asked some really powerful questions in this podcast. Hope we all as a society join hands together to find the answers. We have a long way to go to create an inclusive society, but till then keeping dialogues open is necessary, to understand the needs and create a map. If you wish to be a part of Soulfree as a donor or volunteer you can reach out to "Soulfree" through the website www.soulfree.org.
Also if you have Spinal Cord Injury or know someone who has this injury you can reach out to Soulfree on: 0999428299 or 09994477147
5 сен 2024
