Media Release

Mangaluru, Nov 21: The Sunday of November 20 was a memorable one for 35 children and hundreds of onlookers not just because they were part of an exciting quiz that was fought over five rounds and four schools at the popular Fiza by Nenux mall, but because every team had an enriching experience in inclusivity during these 3 hours. While all children were from the higher primary and high school age group, what separated this quiz from all other quizzes is that each team had one specially-abled visually challenged participant, one specially-abled speech and hearing challenged participant, one participant from a government public school and two from a private school.

For the city of Mangaluru this was a big step in the area of inclusivity and providing inspiration to specially-abled people. The event was sponsored by EGDK India Private Ltd. EG is a Nordic Software Product company and is a market leading vendor of Nordic vertical software for private and public customers. They are 43-years-old and are one of the oldest product companies in Europe. They have a total strength of over 2000 employees spread over 8 global locations.

The event was organized by Mangalore Ladies Circle 82, Mangalore Round Table 115 and Mangalore Coastal Round Table 190, a unit of Round Table and Ladies Circle, India. The organization is non-profit and zero overhead with members working towards the cause of education and learning and special children through a flagship programme 'Freedom through Education' and multiple other events. It offers opportunities for serving the community, work towards empowering women and for fostering and strengthening friendship and bond between like-minded young men and women.

At the end of the event, a team of 5 high school students were crowned as 'EG Genius'. True to the spirit of the event, it was remarkable that the five children had a mix of specially-abled (speech and hearing challenged, visually challenged), Kannada medium and English medium students.

The quiz was conducted in five round. With six teams in total and five children in a team, there were a total of 30 participants. These comprised an equal mix of children from St. Theresa private school, St. Sebastian government (public school), SDM Mangala Institute, Vamanjoor (speech and hearing challenged category) and Roman and Catherine School for the Blind (visually challenged category).

The quiz saw a great deal of activity from the students who immediately managed to pick up the format and also overcome their hesitation of dealing with people who are abled differently than themselves. It was everyone’s observation that this format of a mixed team greatly improved their sensitivity and understanding of natural barriers. There was no better way than this quiz, to prove the point that specially-abled children can and will contribute equally to every facet of life provided the environment is inclusive, supportive and friendly. EG and Round Table and Ladies Circle are strongly committed to this objective and this was one of the key reasons for the introduction of this concept.

Special rounds

The rounds of the quiz had been carefully formulated to maintain this inclusive environment and atmosphere of team work.

The braille round and charades round turned out to be the most interesting.

Braille Round:

In the round the question to the participants was only given to them in braille script – the script used by the visually challenged to read and write. Once the visually challenged student had deciphered the questions, it was up to all the other team mates to jointly answer the question before hitting the buzzer. This led to a lot of cohesion between the teams and their understanding of the finer details of reading braille.

Charades Round:

In this round only the speech challenged student was shown a visual of a person or an object and this student had to enact it to the other students who would have to decipher their actions in order to crack the quiz.

The last two rounds saw great excitement and a nail biting finish with the teams competing for the top spot. Each of the special students won many hearts for their near perfect performance of enacting of personalities. They led their team to win the quiz in the end making their contribution even more special.

Prizes:

The winning team was given trophies, certificates and a voucher prize of Rs 5,000/-. The runners up won trophies, certificates and vouchers too. The audience round was fun with good participation from the audience. All participants were provided certificates of appreciation for their participation and were given takeaway gifts.

Inauguration and chief guests:

The event was inaugurated by U T Khader, MLA from Mangaluru Constituency, Ryan Lobo, Country HR Lead, EGDK India Private Ltd, Vathika Pai, proprietor of Vathika International Travels, Arvind Shrivastav, center drector, Fiza by Nexus Mall.

U T Khader gave an encouraging talk to the children and also to the organizers from Round Table and Ladies Circle and the sponsors EG to have many more such events.

Vathika Pai gave a very meaningful message to the students about the importance of inclusivity and the spirit of collaboration between students of different abilities.

Ryan Lobo gave a detailed overview of EG and added that it was their vision to keep taking Mangalore to greater height and encourage the students and hire them by providing them greater opportunities.

Arvind Shrivastav congratulated the students and spoke about his experience and encouraged them to study well and to work hard and excel in future.

Quiz Masters:

The quiz masters for the event was Dr Viwshwas Pai, consultant ENT and Head and Neck Surgeon and Annappa. Both are very actively involved in Mangalore Quizzing Foundation. Our partners for the event are Fiza by Nexus Mall (venue partners). With their unique style and assisted by other volunteers, they managed to keep the children and the audience engaged and enthralled through the quiz.

Some moving moments:

There were many moving moments that the audience witnessed today. The bonding that had developed between differently abled children in each team was something to be cherished. It was a moving site when the visually challenged students who would normally depend on solely on their designated teacher for moving around, suddenly became comfortable holding the hand of their team mates and all really worked as a team.

Another moving sight was how quickly all children began to learn the language and actions of the hearing impaired students and managed to converse with them at ease.