War Wounded Foundation - New Delhi

As the bulk of our troops hail from rural areas, they prefer to return to their roots after their service in the defence forces and are not inclined to take up jobs in cities. Having recognized this reality, our initial focus was to obtain retail outlets/sub dealerships for them, in products that had a rural market. Thus, we were able to generate self-employment for the war-disabled personnel in or close to their villages. These personnel, having become ‘soldier entrepreneurs’ were able to earn commissions on products sold. This enabled them to supplement their income from pension. We were thus able to assist nearly 100 war-disabled personnel to get outlets. However, after a few years, lesser number of war-disabled personnel were keen to become ‘soldier entrepreneurs’, as it did not appeal to their ethos as soldiers. In addition, the wholesalers appointed by the corporate houses did not support them fully.

With a view to meet the aspirations of the war-disabled personnel, the Foundation then switched its activities to imparting ‘skills’ to them. We initially focused on skills like computer training, spoken English, repairs of small items like TV, radios, cycles etc. Based on the feedback, we have now made the ’skills’ open-ended, to include driving training and in other fields that appeal to these personnel. As some of the older war-disabled personnel were reluctant to learn new skills, we opened the field to their wards also, so that the financial position of these personnel improved through their sons and daughters. This has now become our major focus, as acquisition of new skills appeals to the war-disabled personnel.

Based on interaction with disabled soldiers during meets/rallies and outreach programs, it was realized that wheel chair bound 100% disabled soldiers with disabilities such as paraplegia/quadriplegia etc have to totally depend upon assistance from family members for their routine activities and therefore lead a very difficult life because in most cases such help/assistance is not forthcoming voluntarily due to family compulsions/constraints. It was also found that in such cases proper toilets were not available and adhoc arrangements made, were very unhygienic and cumbersome to use. The Foundation, therefore, decided to provide disabled friendly toilets with suitably modified wheel chair to such disabled soldiers as part of rehabilitation program so as to reduce their dependence and mitigate their suffering to the extent possible. The Foundation has so far provided disabled friendly toilets along with modified wheel chairs to six such disabled soldiers. Efforts are on to identify more needy disabled soldiers and provide them with this facility. This is an ongoing program which will continue in future as well.

The Foundation is also committed to assist our veterans in resolving their personal problems with relevant Government/ Semi- Government / financial / pension/ medical authorities.