60% of the blind people in the world are in India and 60% of those people are blind because of cataracs. Which, ofcourse is usually possible to correct or atleast, restore sight with an insertable (intra ocular)lense plus eye glasses. When I first came to India I supported childrens` causes, but I soon realised that by and large parents do support their children as best they can, especially boy children, and where there was a need for outside support (like bonded labourers), there are many many NGO`s in India helping with children. On the other hand people who were actually blind, because of catarac, were uneducated, poor or destitute, in many cases ignorant of what was wrong with them and sadly ignorant that there is an easy cheap cure. But for some even "cheap" is too much expenditure. More important, blind people often have a whole family depending on them and when they were unable to carry on it was dragging the whole family down. In other words, when you restore a member of a poor family you restore everybody! I thought I can do much more good by restoring eye sight! It only takes a few dollars (like ten)for a catarac operation!
I have been donating money to conduct eye camps through charitable eye hospitals since many years. Unfortunately my yearly accounts of these camps got wiped off the internet when my website host callapsed but I still have all the photos which I share with you.
2 comments:
Dear Mathaji,
Myself Suresh Kumar working as Faculty in consultancy Division at LAICO(Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology)which is the part of Aravind Eye care system -the world largest eyecare provider.
I did my studies at Dehradun so i am i havea special attachments with the Uttaranchal Floks & i felt very happy when i read about the Eye camps you are conducting to the needy population in that District. If you can provide me the details of the Eye care services you are doing since the begining(How do you conduct Eye camps,From were you get the Medical team Support,What is the actual cost of cataract surgery With satistical Data)i can see what type of contribution as a consultant i eye care can provide to this charitable activity.
Thankyou for your email Suresh. I work through Ganga Mata Charitable Eye Hospital in Sapt Sarovar, Hardwar. It would be good if they contacted you directly. I give them about Rs1500.00 for a camp which typically treats 4/500 people of which about 100/120 are elligable for catarac operation IOL if necessary also implanted.
I don`t seem to be able to find your email address from your comments! If you mention it in your text I`ll get the Ganga Mata people to contact you. So sorry for being incredibly late in answering you but I`m checking for comments on this page after a long time (obviously). In divine love, Ma Chetan Jyoti
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