Shoe Polisher Event

 By Deepak Lalge Project Manager KBHB Eye Hospital

Every day we travel by the train to our destination and every day we observe the very busiest group at every Railway station that is Shoe Polishers. Every day they give their efforts to shine our shoes and automatically our personality. KBHB Hospital organised an event for these shoe polishers and their family members . This group was associated with Ravidas Boot Polish Kamgar Co-operative Society Ltd, at Mumbai Central Railway Station.  With great difficulty they were convinced to spare one day of their work for the camp.

97 shoe polishers and their families from which 48 got spectacles and 26 referred for further treatment in the hospital.
These types of events help KBHB to reach the actual unreached and needy population and cater their services through MEC.

Eye Camp at Beggar's Home on the occassion of Women's Day.

KBHB Eye Hospital , partner for the Campaign celebrated World Women Day on 8th March 2010 at Women Beggars Home at Chembur by screening 80 inmates for eye problems including refractive error, cataract, glaucoma and others eye aliments. On the same day Mr. Gautom Arwel, Superintendent of Men Beggars home, wishes all for the day and inaugurated this noble activity in beggars home. The camp was organized jointly with KOSHISH a initiative of TISS College of Social Work for rehabilitation including, vocational of beggars in the society. On the same day they organized poster exhibition and screening camp for the inmates of women beggars’ home and the staff of the beggars’ home. In the event we screened 80 inmates from which 30 got spectacles and 39 referred to the hospital for further treatment. The follow up of the referred patients will be done by the KOSHISH team and clinical follow up will be done by KBHB Hospital.

March 2010- Visitors to MEC

Special Camp was conducted for Rehablitants of 26th July 2006 Mumbai floods on 31st March 2010 near BKC Road, Motilal Nagar, Bandra. We thank Teachers, Staff and Students of Dhirubhai Ambani School for their support in organising this camp and also for conducting pre screennig evaluation with help of our Community health worker. Special acknowledgements to Ambani School for sponsoring Free catarct Surgeries and glasses for the deprived rehabilitants.


Mr. Joseph the Country Director from Zambia commented, "The lesson is having a screening team with apppointed health workers and working referral system with refractions and glasses onsite was very good.I will definately take good lessons home. I aapreciate"


On 27th March ,  Sightsavers representatives from various countries ( who were in the town to attend the Sightsavers Programme Meet) had visited St. Anthony's Church, one of the vision center at Dharavi. They saw the vision centre operational and interacted with the Community Health workers, Camp Supervisor and Optometrists about their role in this campaign. They also appreciated the way of creating awareness within the community with help of street play conducted by Aqua Group and leaflet distribution.

"Everyone we met was the advocate for the Vision Centres and the work of the health workers. Thanks for giving insight into the project." says Diana Washer Programe Operations Support Manager Sightsavers UK
" It was fantastic to see the vision centres doing so well with lots of patients recieving high quality services. The street play was great to watch and its good to watch the team and community so enthusiastic" says Claire Stevens, Research and Learning Officer Sightsavers UK.

 Mr Sunil Fernandes Country Director Sri Lanka who also implement a Seeing is Believing Programme says " The large number of women at the eye camp shows the interaction of the team at the grass root level. Iam taking back a lot of learning from the project."

"Particularly pleased to see how well the health workers are accepted in the community and through them the promotion of eye screening and therefore good health! Mumbai Sees,India Succeeds-Perfect!" says Jennifer Rule Government Relations Sightsavers UK.

Munnidevi Gupta's story...

Mrs. Munnidevi had a complained of decrease in vision since 2 years. But was afraid to communicate with anybody since she belongs to a family and community, where women should not have any Ocular Abnormalities. She was also unaware about the fact that her decrease in vision is an age related factor rather any ocular abnormality. Due to family circumstances and her belief she did not visit any Eye Care practitioner near her locality.
Munnidevi was fortunate enough to work from home, which is unlike other women belonging to this community. She works at one of the workshop near her house where she daily goes and packs Potato wafers of various quantities in plastic bags. She was doing this work since 3 years but, as her vision started decreasing her speed of packing wafer packets got affected. Her monthly income decreased from 700/- to 300/- Rs. This put her into depression, because she has 4 kids to look after, since they all go to school and her husband’s income, who is driver, was not enough to run their family.

Munnidevi’s Husband was very co-operative, as he came to know reason for her depression. He went on searching for a good Eye Care practitioner to treat her decreased vision. It was during Navratri where Lotus College arranged a special camp in Dharavi as part of Mumbai Eye Care Campaign to cover Focus Group; her husband came to know about our mission and advised her for an eye examination. She visited the site and on evaluation by our optometrists she was diagnosed to have presbyopia. She was given + 1.25 D of ready glasses for near work immediately at the camp site.

She was nervous to seek an eye examination due to multiple reasons namely, poor financial status, Community pressure, lack of knowledge about eye care etc...

She is happy with the fact that, her decrease in vision is an age related factor and not a major Ocular Disorder, her job is secured and now she earns monthly income of 1000/- which she thinks that will help her family up- bringing and support her husband.Her treatment was successful, because not only her vision was restored but she gives this sight restoring therapy credit to the team of Mumbai Eye Care Campaign and to her husband for being so co-operative. She has also learned how to wear glasses and its care and maintenance.

By Hiral Korani
Sr Optometrist -MEC

Sightsavers New Brand Launch

India Office was closed on 1st March for Holi, the Festival of Colors, a spring festival celebrated by Indians. It heralds the arrival of spring with the promise of good harvests and commemorates legends from Hindu mythology. Traditionally celebrated on the first day after the full moon in early March, the festival allows for the shedding of inhibitions and differences in a rush of spring fever. It is characterised best by the water and gulal (colored powder), which are thrown upon one another in an exuberant welcome of the season of love

Children and youths take extreme delight in this festival. Though the festival is usually played with colors at some places people also enjoy playing holi with mud. Folk songs are sung at high pitch and people dance to the tune of dholak (drums) and the spirit of Holi.

On 2nd March we thought to symbolize the launch of our new brand and what better way could it be than playing holi with our new brand colours.Click the album below to view photos of the launch.

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/mumbaieyecarecampaign/BRANDLAUNCH?feat=email#

Myself Praveen!

"Iam Pravin! I am in Class 9 now. I am very keen to study MBA and joining Govt. Administrative services. With new low vision devices Iamconfident of achieving my dream.  Iam  top ranker in my school!"

This is a case study of Master Pravinkumar Bhonsale,18 year old boy who was identified to be a low vision patient during the screening programme conducted by Lotus College Of Optometry, Juhu, Mumbai at Victoria Memorial Blind School,Tardeo,Mumbai.

He was diagnosed to have Optic Atrophy and was studying in Braille since many years. He had been integrated to a regular school in Std.8 and was using regular Marathi script with reader / writer facilities during examination. He wanted to stop Braille and use residual vision.

"He was referred at Lotus College of Optometry, Juhu, Mumbai. On examination was found to have 1.8 and 1.4 LogMar visual acuity for distance and 1.14 & 0.7 Logmar acuity for near. He was given 6X telescope for distant vision for copying from the Blackboard and was advised to use 20D spectacles for near use. On trial of these devices his vision improved to 0.62 LogMar with telescope for distance and with use of +20.D his near visual acuity improved to 0.8M. Along with these devices he was also given a typoscope and a letter writer guide by which he was comfortable using them" says Hiral Korani Sr. Optometrist Mumbai Eye Care Campaign.

" Iam very glad!" reacts Praveen.

Words from Sightsavers UK-Mumbai Marathon

An Indian adventure

Sightsavers’ Kat and Jen recently ran the Mumbai Marathon! Read about their epic journey here.
30 degree heat, rogue goats and the notorious Indian traffic were no match for dedicated staff Jennie Rule and Katrina Scaife, when they ran the Mumbai marathon for Sightsavers in January.

Kat and Jen, who work in the Corporate Fundraising Team, have so far raised over £1,000! Plagued by injury and illness, and at times unable to train due to the treacherously icy streets, the unperturbed pair were determined to complete the race, which is sponsored by Sightsavers’ biggest corporate supporter Standard Chartered bank.

Jen finished the 26 mile course in less than five hours, and Kat made it in six and a half, impressive going given the conditions! To sponsor them, visit www.justgiving.com/KattyandGingerJen.

“I’m no marathon runner,” said Kat. “I do quite a bit of exercise but I’ve never been very good at running. I got a rotten virus followed by a chest infection in October, which took me out of training for two months. But I decided I’d rather go and fail than let Jen go to Mumbai on her own.

By the time the starter pistol went off at 6.45 am on Sunday 17 January, I was pretty resigned to my fate. However I was pleasantly surprised, the first hour slipped by and I managed to keep my pace and didn’t feel the need to stop.

As I got into the 14th mile, things started to change, my legs were really aching and I could feel blisters on my feet. I decided to alternate between walking and jogging. Running was really painful, every step hurt and it made the kilometres feel endless. My dad had given me some audio books for my iPod so I put on Fawlty Towers and that’s when the experience became really surreal, hurrying across the Bandra Sealink Bridge, chuckling to myself like a lunatic.

At this point they started opening the roads and the course became increasingly chaotic! At one point a goat wandered into my path and I almost tripped over it. I now had to cross roads, which in Mumbai is terrifying. Traffic lights appear to be voluntary guidelines for the Mumbai motorist. I find crossing roads in Mumbai stressful anyway, let alone when I’m nearing the verge of physical exhaustion.

Unlike the London Marathon with its thousands of participants and spectators, at the end of the Mumbai Marathon all visible signs of the race were gone. By this time I’d covered over 42 kilometres, and was lost and completely exhausted: my vision of crossing the finish line to Europe’s ‘the Final Countdown’ were fast diminishing.

When I reached a junction and bumped into a woman wearing a race bib it turned out she not only spoke English, but knew the way! We walked to the finish line together.

People have asked me why on Earth would I try to run the Mumbai Marathon? There’s no simple answer, I like a challenge and an adventure, I also wanted to run for Sightsavers and for personal reasons, but I think at the end of the day it comes down to the fact that Jennie and I are both bonkers.”

You can click here to read Jen’s account.

Thank goodness for Ibuprofen!

Sightsavers’ Jennie Rule shares her experience of running the Mumbai Marathon.

"Fortunately for me, I had run a marathon once before so had some idea of what running that distance feels like, but there was no planning I could have done to prepare me for running in Mumbai."

We landed a day and a half before the race – not really enough time to acclimatise, but we did our best. On the day we had to get up at 4am to eat breakfast. We had no fridge or kettle in our rooms, and the dining hall didn’t open until 7.30am, so the night before we had to beg for something to eat. The best they could offer was a thermos of warm powdered milk – mmmm!

We attempted to go to the toilet at the start… you had to negotiate your way up a very narrow, very slippery, very dirty staircase to then be greeted by a long drop – just a hole in the floor – nice!

We started on time and I ran with Kat for a short distance before she told me to run on. We’d decided pre-race that we wouldn’t try to stay together as we run at different paces. The first couple of hours were great, I felt really strong, the crowds were cheering “COME ON LADY!” and there were bands playing as well.

There was a distinct lack of water or energy drinks on the course. You could go a good five miles without a drink station. I ran solidly until about 27k, by which point I had run out of Lucozade Sport, and there had been no sign of water for a couple of kilometres, and I couldn’t see anything in the distance. I started feeling quite faint, so walked for a bit. The sun was up and the heat was awful. I was so thirsty by now, I ended up flagging down a van that drove past and asking if they had any water – thank God they did!

Whenever I came across the very sporadic water stations I started taking two bottles, then I’d get two or three kids running up to me and begging for the water – they’d get told off by the marshals and run away again. This is the sort of experience that makes running in a city like Mumbai unique – that and the random goats on the course.

I ran/walked the last 10k, I felt really awful and my legs were getting heavy. The minute I crossed the line I started crying! I was so emotional, and felt like death. But also on top of the world! The heat and humidity and air quality were really hard to cope with, which makes me even prouder that we both finished.