Workshop on the Ministry of Arpana
The youth department in collaboration with Arpana and the department for persons with disabilities came together in engaging with the young people from bangalore civil and city area in elaborating on the ministry of Arpana and thereafter assuming them as change makers in support of Arpana in their local capacities.
Following the brief introductory note to Arpana (and its historic mission) by the director of Arpana, Ms Vasanthi Saduri and greetings by the Principal of Cathedral High School, Ms. Shanthi Glory, Rev Nehemiah, the Director of the Youth Department CSI- KCD, took to stage to invoke impressions of disabilities from the audience, since that was the sole intent of the day’s event, to bring forward the sensitivity towards being a ‘differently abled person’ commonly called as Person with disability (PWD).
Rev Solomon Paul, Director of the Department of the Differently Abled People CSI- KCD, awakened the humane fragment of all the youth present at the event, with an experimental activity that allowed them to engage and explore with four ‘made to be’ disabled volunteers with four prominent disabilities. He further discussed with the audience, what constitutes to disability, some of the rights (although insufficient) allotted to PWDs and how the scripture recognizes the plight of differently abled people with the example of the incident from John 5: 1-9.
Giving a personal perspective from a first party point of inference, Mr Jacob shared how life crippling it can be to be labelled an ‘invalid’ for a being differently abled and also expressed how our legal structures still lack in meeting the needs of differently abled people. For the concluding part of the event Mr Samson a member of Board overseeing Aparna presented the entity’s contribution from its inception to date and proposed a few other ventures that Arpana could step foot-in, to become a self-sustaining organization with the ensured support of the young people of the church and guided assistance from the youth department of CSI-KCD.
The program was graced and inspired by the in house presbyter Rev Theodore Williams and Rev Christy Gnanadasan, the ministerial convenor CSI-KCD and Rev G S Shalini, the director for the Sunday School dept of the Diocese.
The gathering concluded with lunch and sharing of Arpana production Kit to all the participating churches.
