the goan I network
PANAJI
Avelino de Sa from Miramar has been awarded the Dr Batra’s Positive Hero Award 2019 at the hands of renowned personalities Bharat Dabholkar and Pankaj Udhas at a glamourous function of the 13th “Dr Batra’s Positive Health Awards 2019” held in Mumbai last week.
The award consists of a trophy, certificate and cash prize of Rs 1,00,000. De Sa is the first Goan to receive this award and this is his second national award.
Born with cerebral palsy, de Sa is a mutual fund advisor by profession who has his own firm Star Investments for the last 20 years. He is the founder and President of the Disability Rights Association of Goa (DRAG) which has been working for the last 16 years in Goa to bring people with disability into the mainstream society.
He is a member of the North Goa Local Level Committee of the National Trust for Welfare of Persons With Intellectual Disability and NCPEDP’s National Committee for the Protection of Rights of Persons with Disability.
He has been awarded the ADAPT National Award for Excellence in Activism in October 2015 and has been listed as India’s top 50
modern-day heroes for the year 2014 by the Better India website.
He has been featured in a book published by National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation titled “Yes we can” which is a compilation of success stories of 100 differently-abled entrepreneurs in India. Last year he was awarded the GEMS Young Entrepreneur Special Recognition Award.
Says de Sa, “Being born with cerebral palsy has not stopped me from being an achiever and a role model for others.”
Speaking at the award function, de Sa thanked Dr Batra’s for honouring outstanding persons with disability from all over India and urged other corporates to come forward to felicitate outstanding persons with disability as awareness is created on the capabilities and talents of persons with disability when they are felicitated, which helps in their inclusion in society.
He also requested the audience to contribute in their own small way to make their neighbourhood accessible for persons with disability as he said, “We cannot talk about education, employment and entertainment for persons with disability if there is no accessibility for them in society.”
