My Social Business Experience in India

I was very lucky to be selected to participate in Artemisia Social Business program. I do think it is one of the most amazing internships one can have in AIESEC, if not the best one. Because social business is the field where there is so much innovation! It is all about innovation and passion. Because the whole concept of a social business is already an innovation, right? And you can learn so much in it! Believe me!

I am working with a startup called Inclusive Planet, which is basically a social network for the blind. Before I applied for this internship I knew only one person with low vision in my life. He is a wonderful musician living in Magadan. And I actually never thought that blind or visually impaired people can use computers...So the first learning point for me was: thanks to technology blind people can use computers, cellphones, internet just like sighted people. The difference is that they use a program called Screen reader which reads out whatever is written to them. But because our world is so visual and usually the websites are not only text, they contain a lot of pictures and animations; a lot of information is just inaccessible to the visually challenged people.

So the founders of Inclusive Planet decided to create a website specially designed for the blind, totally accessible. And www.inclusiveplanet.comturned to be a website where blind people can share their files (books, articles, etc.in an accessible format), connect to each other to entertain or to help each other face similar challenges. It's something like a Facebook for the blind, except that it is much more than just a social network. It's a completely new thing which has never existed before and which can become a huge success! Imagine what a great feeling it is to work with an organization like this!

So my job here has been to meet visually challenged people who are employed or who are studying to be employed and interview them. After that I make short videos of them telling their stories and sharing with others and I upload these stories on Inclusive Stories Channel at www.inclusiveplanet.com and on YouTube.

The stories I collected are simply amazing! The people I met are so strong and inspiring! After meeting them I broke a lot of stereotypes about the blind in my head. They are so cheerful and independent! It is amazing the way they managed to accept their disability and take it as a challenge, look at it very positively. I learn so much from them!

Another important learning point I got here is that you have to see opportunities in every problem. Just like Inclusive Planet saw an opportunity in the world of the visually challenged people, people can do so much to make lives of both sighted and visually impaired people better. And I am not saying that people have to open a charity or start teaching blind people to read, sing, or whatever. The good thing is that every person can contribute to it without even making a lot of effort. It is just about being open, understand each other's needs and strong points and learn to work and live together. Visually challenged people are so good in some things that the sighted people are bad in and the other way round. I think we should be very inclusive in this point, stop dramatizing the problem or sympathizing the people with challenges and just see the positive side of everything.

Below you can find the first stories I made: