Raphael Ryder Cheshire International Centre, Dehradun, a multifaceted organisation looking after cured leprosy patients, children of leprosy parentage, intellectually disabled and treatment of TB patients — including those who are drug resistant, celebrated its 56th founders’ day on Saturday. State Governor Aziz Qureshi was the chief guest of the programme.
It began with a welcome song by the children of Raphel. This was followed by a cultural programme staged by children of Raphael, which kept the audience spellbound.
Air Marshal BD Jayal (Retd) paid homage to the founders group Captain lord leonard Cheshire and Baroness Sue Ryder and their spirit of compassion and service. He mentioned that the present person with disability (PwD) Act 1995 concerning Rights for persons with disabilities is not a rights based legislation and hence leaves those disabled vulnerable. It is hence the moral obligation of the society to fill the gap.
He said the challenge can be addressed through a constructive partnership between the State, non-governmental organisation (NGO) and private sector. Uttarakhand being a young and relatively small State is ideally placed to become a model State for those disabled, if everybody joins hands together.
In his address, Qureshi lauded Raphael for its works towards upliftment of the disabled and the underprivileged. Commending the work done by Raphael, he appealed to people and organisations to come forward and do their bit to help these less privileged.