'Disabled' is a misnomer for them

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">BANGALORE: They are considered ''dependents'', labelled disabled and often pushed to the periphery of our existence. But a group of nearly 30 mentally and physically challenged children near Doddaballapur have proven such branding wrong, transforming a rough barren piece of land into a lush vegetable garden.<br />The Telefood Project, funded to the extent of $10,000 by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, is being run by a charitable trust -- the P.N.Agricultural Science Foundation (PNSAF), on donated land.<br />Today, the first crop of hybrid bottle gourd sown by these challenged children on 1.5 acres is ready for harvest. And they are gearing up for the second sowing.<br />The estimated income from the first crop is Rs 1 lakh, Dr Prem Nath, National Project Leader of the Telefood Project and founder of PNASF, told <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Times of India.</span><br />Dr Nath launched the FAO''s food security programme among low-income food-deficit countries in 1994 when he was Special Advisor on Food Security to the Director General of FAO.<br />The PNASF has a buyback arrangement with Namdhari Seeds Private Limited that provided the initial seed. "They now have food as well as money. They are also meeting food needs of others, helping ensure food security."<br />They will be further trained in seed extraction, cleaning, grading, physical and genetic purity and packing, says Dr Prem Nath.<br />The first crop was sown by these children on November 3, 2001 near Doddaballapur, around 50 km from Bangalore, where 6.5 acres of rocky land was painstakingly cleared for cultivation, and the gigantic task of bringing water and electricity to the arid land achieved over a year.<br />The children are provided free food, clothing, and shelter at the site and a personality transformation project by the Institute of Universal Consciousness ensures that their "power within" is also tapped with mind-body coordination programmes, physiotherapy, meditation and yoga, programmes to accelerate body potential. Volunteer families from nearby villages take care of the children.<br />FAO launched its Telefood Campaign in 1997 to create awareness about issues of food security. Nath contributed Rs 1 lakh to the project and consequently, the FAO ploughed back funds for telefood projects. Today, there are more than 1,000 Telefood projects in over 100 countries.<br />The next step is to transform the project into ''Vishwadharua'', a global model village, where the healthy will live in harmony with the challenged and the destitute. </div> </div>