DHARAVI EYE MELA

I still remember that afternoon in the month of June when the Sightsavers team sat in the conference hall trying to think about how best we could celebrate the “World Sight Day”. A few ideas were tossed around – An auditorium event? A Peace rally? A College event... and then suddenly … POP…it came through… “An Eye Mela” at Dharavi!! We could see the excitement on the faces already! We quickly passed the idea to the partners who wholeheartedly supported the plan.

As each day passed by we realized that we had a huge dream to be accomplished, what seemed simple and easy initially actually turned out to be a daunting task; but nothing could beat the enthusiasm and efforts put in by the Sightsavers team and our Partners! Lead by Dr. Rajesh Kapse the entire team got going-a blue print was made, location recce started, vendors were met, police permissions sought and a frantic effort started to get in a chief guest.Dr Kapse’s continuous meetings with the Mumbai Municipal Corporation authorities, including correspondences with the Mayor of the city finally got us our venue-Sant Kakkaiyya School Dharavi. Multiple meetings with partners sealed what their individual stalls would be; there were event handouts distributed in and around Dharavi inviting people and an exclusive eye screening camp was held for the children of the Kakkaiyya school prior to the event.
The D Day arrived!! (not as smoothly as it has in the blog..). There were in all 16 stalls including those of Sightsavers, KBHB Eye Hospital, Lotus Hospital, Lotus College of Optometry, Sion Hospital, National Association of the Blind-India, Blind Person’s Association, St. Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged, Impact India Foundation (mobile van) and those of other NGOs like Avert, SHED & Nirmaan.. A huge force of the Campaign health workers, Optometrists, Interns, NSS volunteers, Aqua Street play group members, Standard Chartered Bank Representatives & teams from the partner organizations and other local NGO’s worked round the clock to make the event a success.The ambience in the mela was vibrant & energetic-as young and old gathered to get their eyes screened, they were also introduced to information on basic eye care. The NAB & BPA stalls were manned by the visually challenged who demonstrated their various skills & talents. The XRCVC’s Antarchakshu stall operated by trained volunteers of SHED & Nirmaan gave an opportunity to step into the shoes of a visually challenged person and do various activities blindfolded.Our Chief Guest Mr. Anupam Kher arrived to a warm welcome. As he visited the stalls he was touched and impressed with the dedicated work shown by the various organizations.He was presented with tokens of love handmade by the visually challenged, and was moved to tears after going through the Antarchakshu experience. Mr. Abasaheb Jadhav (Education Officer BMC) also graced the occasion and shared his thoughts about the Mela; the crowd also gave a thunderous applause when two visually challenged showed off their dancing skills to popular Hindi songs. After felicitating the partners and other dignitaries


Mr. Kher in his speech stressed on the fact that ‘Eyes are taken for granted’. He appreciated the hard work and commitment shown by each one to propagate the cause, and finally moved by the entire experience pledged his eyes to the Lotus Eye Hospital

Through the indoor event chants of ‘Mumbai Dekhegaa.. India Badhegaa’ were heard and who else to lead the crowd but our very own Mr. Shrinivas Sawant, with whose support and guidance this dream of the Dharavi Eye Mela has been a success .