Very nice article. This team has embarked upon a very noble mission. Our
politicians and world ranking industrialists should learn a lesson and take
an inspiration from such a commitment and come forward to express their
support financially and morally. I was thrilled by the statement of Nobel
laureate Mohamed Yunus. He means to say that, you should strike exactly
where the problem exists. That should be the spirit. I liked his bold
statement. Whether it is America, Britain or world bank, you should speak
out loud and clear what you feel is right. But on the other hand, our prime
minister and president don't have courage even to take the name of Pakistan
in the contest of terrorism. As you see, it is always quoted !prime minister
accused without taking the name of the country!.
----- Original Message -----
From: "avinash shahi" <shahi88avin...@gmail.com>
To: "accessindia" <accessindia@accessindia.org.in>; "jnuvision"
<jnuvis...@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2010 7:58 PM
Subject: [AI] Giving the gift of sight
Giving the gift of sight
A team of doctors and volunteers in rural Bihar show that with
determination and community effort it is possible to eradicate
blindness… LUCY MATHEN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The knowledge, skills, passion and commitment are right there amongst
the people...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photo: Lucy Mathen
Opening up new vistas:The Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital team.
October was the busiest month for United Nations commemorative days.
There were 16 in total, including World Sight Day when representatives
from large international organisations gathered in Switzerland to
raise awareness about blindness.
Meanwhile, rural Bihar, which had the worst blindness problem in the
world 10 years ago, is still the place on our planet with the most
people unnecessarily blind. The good news is that this state now
boasts one of the best success stories related to restoring sight. It
involves not just a hospital but entire communities.
There is an island in the middle of the Ganga in Bihar known as
Sitab-diara. It is one of the most inaccessible places in India, which
is why, in the days when kidnapping was rampant in this impoverished
and neglected state, victims were kept prisoner on Sitab-diara until
their ransoms were paid.
Things have changed for the good in Bihar. At least as far as law and
order is concerned. Macho men with elaborate moustaches astride
galloping horses are still seen on Sitab-diara. But instead of
guarding kidnap victims they are now more likely to be contributing to
a spectacular campaign to eradicate blindness. This unique project
stepped up its action in the weeks leading up to World Sight Day in
mid October. Its aim was to cure every single person who was blind
from cataract on Sitab-diara and a quarter of all the diara islands in
Bihar. Why? Because if blind people in the most inaccessible areas
could be reached, then we would all feel more confident of eradicating
blindness from the entire state.
This project was centred around the Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital. The
AJEH is only five years old and located in a tiny village 20
kilometres from an electricity source. But it is now the state's
largest eye hospital with two satellite eye units and a formidable
outreach programme. It is a minor miracle that the hospital is still
functioning. Three months after its establishment, its main financial
backer, an international NGO, pulled out of a two year agreement. But
with massive community support the hospital was able to survive and
now employs hundreds and is aided by hundreds more volunteers. Almost
unheard of in rural Bihar, they have managed to recruit and retain a
team of highly experienced eye surgeons.
The AJEH is run by Kolkata businessman Mritunjay Tiwary whose
ancestral village is close to Mastichak, the village in which the
hospital is located.
The very day the idea of tackling the diara islands was conceived,
Tiwary summoned the key outreach workers. Within a few hours they had
planned which islands to target, including the once notorious Kidnap
Island. They were so excited by the plan that they went out that night
to investigate weather conditions. They discovered that some of the
diara were still flooded because of monsoon rains so access to them
was only possible by wading in neck-deep water! They adapted their
plans accordingly.
Enthusiastic volunteers
Former priest Shashi Kant Dwivedi, who became an outreach worker after
his own diara became the very first to be visited by the hospital
team, told me: “I can do more good work being an outreach worker than
as a priest.”
Farmer Awadh Rai, aged 55, was once blind himself. After cataract
surgery at the AJEH he became one of their many Protectors of Sight,
going from door-to-door collecting patients with sight problems.
The Diara Push was a huge success. Over 3,600 blind men, women and
children were brought in for cataract surgery. And the AJEH are also
addressing many of the UN Millennium Development Goals with other
innovative and imaginative schemes. The Akhand Jyoti Football Academy
is a scheme for village girls which provides nutritious food, school
fees, organised football training, English and IT classes, and work
experience at the hospital. Poverty drives most families in rural
Bihar to marry off their daughters by the age of 15; they are pregnant
by 18, 70 per cent severely anaemic and two thirds illiterate. It is
no surprise that the alternative life and opportunities the Football
Academy gives to them has received full backing from parents. Some of
the girls will be taken onto a Diploma of Ophthalmic Technicians
Course (DOT) when they complete their schooling. This will mean a
guaranteed job at the eye hospital for the girls, and a source of
future paramedics for a rapidly expanding hospital.
Fifteen-year-old Sushma Kumari was supposed to have been married last
year. But her father cancelled her marriage after she became part of
the Football Academy. A few months later he became an eye patient
himself. When he came into the hospital he found his own daughter on
one of her work experience mornings. It was she who tested his vision.
The proud father wept. Said Sushma: “Getting involved with the
hospital is the best thing in my life.”
Years ago Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunnus shocked an
American journalist by suggesting that, if he were President of the
World Bank, he would relocate their headquarters to Dhaka. Yunnus
writes about this in his book Banker to the Poor:
The overarching objective of the World Bank is to combat world
poverty, then it seems to me that the Bank should move to a location
where poverty is rampant. In Dhaka the Bank would be surrounded by
human suffering and destitution. By living in close proximity to the
problem, I believe the Bank would solve the problem much faster and
more realistically.
I feel exactly the same way about blindness. It is rural Bihar and
Orissa that remain the worst places in the world for blindness. The
experts to deal with this are not in Geneva, London, Mumbai or
Madurai. The knowledge, skills, passion and commitment are right there
amongst the people who would benefit most from the problem being
solved. We just have to learn to listen to them. Which is why I spend
a great deal of time in the villages of both states, with the likes of
Tiwary, Awadh Rai, and 15-year-old girls who play football. And we are
winning. Not just on the football pitch.
source:
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/11/07/stories/2010110750160400.htm
--
best regards
you can also join me and my collections on www.inclusiveplanet.com
I am running various channels there: readers! if you are intrested in
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views will be entertained hear. do not miss the benefits: join soon!
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and I am also running channel journalism: media is a powerful mesanger
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always hear and read, media is the forth state. and very powerful to
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fulfilling their responsibility impartially and succesfully? we will
observe and understand. in this channel your contribution is warmly
welcome!
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avinash shahi
parsuing masters in political science
Jawaharlal Nehru university, new delhi.
mobile:: 9871184904
e-mail: shahi88avin...@gmail.com
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