Mumbai: Sixteen war-disabled soldiers participated in Mumbai Marathon for the eighth consecutive year on Sunday. All of these soldiers had sustained severe injuries including amputated legs in various wars in 1965, 1971, IPKF ops, Kargil War. The jawans participated in the ‘Dream Run’ category under the banner of “War Wounded Foundation”, an NGO set up for rehabilitation and alleviation of problems faced by disabled soldiers of Indian Armed Forces.
The war disabled warriors were seen sporting a red and white T-shirt of their foundation and were led by its President Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (79), the former Vice Chief of Army Staff and Vice President Maj Gen Ian Cardozo (82) with the motto ‘Converting Disability into Ability’. Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi said, “We want to spread the message that physical limitations do not stop a soldier from being useful to society and they strive to succeed even with these challenges.”
Speaking to the Free Press Journal, Maj Gen Ian Cardozo said, “Losing a leg did not put us down from participating in the Marathon along with other abled participants. We spread the message, “Converting Disability into Ability’, for the sole purpose of assisting those like us in their long-term rehabilitation and financial independence.”
Participating in the marathon were soldiers whose percentage of disability was between 40 per cent to 100 per cent, belonging to different battalions. The main aim of the War Wounded Foundation is to solicit donations so that it can continue to assist war-disabled personnel of the defence force.
The foundation focusses on imparting skills like computer training, small repairs of items like TV, computer, radios, cycles among others. As this imparting of skills became more in demand, the foundation also started training their personnel in other fields like driving and cooking.
