The idea of SAY Foundation is a culmination of building foundation towards creating an ecosystem for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
Initially, we were deliberating on the demand of hidden talent and addressing the needs of the institutions and organizations by building a solid workforce. We initially toyed with idea of carving out a niche for enabling the PwDs to the mainstream workforce, making them economically stable and consistently honing their skill set to become employable in today’s ever dynamic workplace.
With the goal set for enabling the disabled persons to explore job opportunities, get equipped with the right skill set and build a network of other PwDs, we decided to create an exclusive Job portal. The portal offers job opportunities to the PwDs, awareness about the possibilities to learn and grow with technological enablement. This will eventually lead the companies to devise their diversity, equity and inclusive policies with a focus beyond gender and ethnicity.
On further deliberations with the key advocates, opinion leaders, PwDs themselves, we were amazed at the huge scope / potential available to nurture and shape this community which is about 2.2% of India’s population (under reported). This was a turning point and SAY was born with an aim to enable their inclusion to the vast workforce of Private and Government Organizations extending the support to access means towards their sustainability and financial stability along with access to education, medical support etc and list goes on. Even the minimal required support during the Pandemic have witnessed their struggles to even get vaccinated. The caretakers of the PwDs had to appeal to health agencies to create accessibility means to reach the health centers to get vaccinated. Frankly amidst covid where Humility was at peak, forgetfulness was too.
The deep seated need of enabling the PwDs to become an integral part of the workforce coined an innovative approach to develop an eco-system including exclusive job portal for PwDs, NGOs, Government and Private Organizations and Policy advocates.
It emboldened our vision to create SAY to support the PwDs towards becoming financially capable and help them to manage not only their livelihood but also aspire them to grow by Integrating the community, corporates and NGOs under one platform.
Swati Yadav is a multifaceted senior management professional with experience spanning across industries, geographies and cultures. She believes in pursuing her dreams and passion towards building a better future for self and others. Her experience working as HR expert has largely focused on building talent, diverse and highly inclusive workforce enabling Organizations to thrive. As a transformation HR Partner, Swati has always focused on learning new Read More skills and following the principles of change which are inevitable. Her association to various local and international forums for special needs, gender diversity, women international forums have ignited her interest to work for larger community such as Persons with Disabilities. Her passion to build an AI powered market place exclusively for PwDs has led to nurturing of The SAY Foundation to empower the PwDs to self-explore career opportunities, connect with NGOs to become job ready and work with employer of choice. This will also enable the Organizations to tap huge potential of PwDs, strengthen connect with extended communities of NGOs and provide a forum for PwDs to be a voice in Policy Advocacy. Read Less
Sarthak Yadav is the Director of The Say Foundation. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Economics & Mathematics from University of California, San Diego.He is passionate about The Say Foundation. He truly believes that The Say Foundation could revolutionise the workspace as it would produce an excellent platform for Persons with Disabilities to succeed in their careers and simultaneously companies would be able to uncover great talent.