Few Words About Us
Who We Are
Help The Blind Foundation (HTBF) is a non-profit organisation working to enable access to education, employability, and economic independence for persons with visual impairment across India. Our work focuses primarily on students from economically vulnerable backgrounds, for whom access to higher education and skills can be truly life-changing.
We believe that blindness should never limit a person’s aspirations, opportunities, or participation in society.
The Need We Address
India is home to the world’s largest population of persons with visual impairment. Of the nearly 39 million blind people globally, an estimated 12 million live in India. Among them are close to 1.8 million young people of college-going age.
For many visually impaired students, poverty, limited access to quality schooling, inadequate assistive resources, and low expectations combine to restrict their educational and professional pathways. These barriers often result in low college enrolment, high dropout rates, and poor employment outcomes.
Help The Blind Foundation exists to address these systemic challenges through sustained, education-led interventions that focus on long-term independence rather than short-term relief.
Our History
Help The Blind Foundation was founded in Hong Kong in 2005 by the late Mr. D. K. Patel, a retired Senior Economist with HSBC, Hong Kong, along with the support of his wife, Mrs. Niti Patel, and other prominent residents of Hong Kong.
In its early years, the Foundation focused on supporting blind school-going children in India by improving infrastructure and capacity at existing schools for the visually impaired. Through this work, and through close engagement with educators and students, an important insight emerged: integrated education, rather than education in segregated institutions, better prepares visually impaired students for higher education, employment, and participation in society.
This understanding led to a strategic shift in the Foundation’s work — towards enabling visually impaired students to pursue university education in regular colleges, alongside their sighted peers.
To implement this mission in India, Help The Blind Foundation India was established as a Registered Trust in Chennai in 2010, with academics and professionals joining as Trustees. Operations began in earnest in 2011, with the Foundation supporting nine students in their first year of collegiate education.
From these beginnings, HTBF has grown steadily into a nationwide organisation with an All-India presence, branching into various facets such as skill development, career guidance, school level intervention and more.