“LOVING BUS” — A VIGOROUS DESIRE TO MAKE CHANGE
Following the UPSHIFT Social Impact Program, UNICEF Viet Nam would like to feature a series of inspiring stories about participants’ journey with UPSHIFT. Let’s start with the first one!
Lost his eyesight from a severe head injury, Vo Dang Khoa has been through numerous tragedies, yet risen high up with a strong determination to help his community of people with visual impairment. Khoa was not only a team leader, but an inspirer who made every UPSHIFT participant believe that nothing is impossible if you dare to try.
“I was frequently abandoned and ignored by the bus”
Khoa was born in Dong Nai province which located 65 kilometers to the east of Ho Chi Minh City and lives with his family in Long Thanh district. He works at Thien An shelter — home of people with visual impairment and is an active worker at The Blind Association. Like most of UPSHIFT participants, his greatest aspiration is to contribute to social work and is already running a fund to help the orphanage and people with disabilities who eager to learn and improve their educational level.
Khoa is now in his fourth year of university and every day, he catches bus 30 to travel from Tan Phu District to HCMC University of Sport. From his own experience, Khoa understands deeply the difficulties blind people face when travelling on public transport. “I was frequently abandoned and ignored by the bus driver”, Khoa remembered. “Two other friends in my team encountered worse problems — they were dropped off at the wrong bus stop.” he added. Such encounters drove him to find solutions to his own community. Khoa used the skills he’d been taught around computer literacy, music, braille, orientation and mobility to put them to good use during the UPSHIFT workshop.
What changes will he bring?
His project targeted visually-impaired users who considered bus the major mean of transportation. The group he led wanted to improve the extant mobile app named “Moovit” and make it friendlier to the visually-impaired people. For example, the system should be able to automatically navigate the current location, identify the bus number, anticipate waiting time and verbally inform the passenger in advance. If it was expanded within the blind community, it could make huge difference on their daily independent travel.
“The toughest challenge for me is that 3 out of 4 team members are blind. Two of us are still learning, which results in time constraint, not to mention the difficulties of traveling. However, we are lucky to have one bright peer who can support in human resources, fundraising and advocacy.” Khoa shared. “Even if we cannot win the incubation, we will never give up. There are still a lot of blind students out there who suffer every day. I want to help them and myself access to better support and safer road trips.”
What awaits him after UPSHIFT?
“I will try my best to seek funding which can bring me closer to the authorities and complete my longing wishes to support my community” Khoa said as he expressed his determination to take actions on his plan, no matter what.
Right until the end of our conversation, I was still impressed by his optimistic and generous characteristics.
Before saying goodbye to me, he sent his warmest thanks to all of UPSHIFT supporters and members. During the workshops, the flexibility of his mindset has improved a lot. He appreciated the opportunity UPSHIFT brought him to keep pursuing his dream. We, otherwise, were more than grateful for all the energy and spirit he inspired us.
For more details about UPSHIFT program, please visit: https://goo.gl/gfrA8h
