Sight Walk’ to create awareness on curable blindness on the occasion of World Sight Day

Oct. 9, 2009 - PRLog -- Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore joined forces with Rotary District 3190 to organize ‘Sightwalk’ today, on the occasion of World Sight Day. The walkathon was conducted to promote awareness on gender inequity and eye care- the global theme of this year’s world sight day. Sankara Eye care also conducted campaigns to increase public awareness on curable blindness and major causes such as diabetes, glaucoma, cataract and refractive error on this occasion Some of city’s eminent professionals including S Nagendra, Governor, Rotary District 3190, J Crasta, President, FKCCI, M. Subramani, District Chairman, Eye Surgeries Committee and M.V Ravikumar, Cataract free RI District 3190, along with 30 blind children from National Association for Blind & 30 School Children, 100 Rotarians & Sankara employess, 35 women from Round Table India walked around Cubbon Park today morning in support of the cause.



Few men walked blindfolded to commemorate this year’s World Sight Day’s message of creating awareness on gender equity in eye care.  Around two-thirds blind people worldwide are women & girls. The main reason behind this is usually the societal attitudes towards disability and gender roles. It is of due importance to raise awareness of women’s plight who do not have access to eye care. Bangaloreans & the eminent personalities actively participated in the mission of equal right to equal sight. Select participants also pledged their eyes during this occasion by filling the donor foms at the venue.



World Sight Day is observed around the world by all partners involved in preventing visual impairment or restoring sight. It is also the main advocacy event for the prevention of blindness and for "Vision 2020: The Right to Sight", a global effort to prevent blindness created by WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. To know more about gender inequity and eye care and regular updates on Sankara Eye Care Institutions’ initiatives towards this cause, visit us at www. Sankaraeye.com

 

In his comments, Dr. Ramani, Founder & Managing Trustee, Sankara Eye Care Institutions, said, “This is a great partnership opportunity and an occasion to raise awareness on avoidable and curable blindness for us. World Sight Day is important to us as an organization and we cherish the tremendous support we receive from organizations like Rotaract and corporates alike each year. We are glad we received an encouraging response”



According to S Nagendra, Rotary District 3190, “We should create awareness about Sight as estimated 3 million people suffer from corneal blindness in India. Presently there is a need to collect atleast 100,000 corneas per year whereas we receive only 15000 corneas. Today we should pledge to care about people who don’t have vision by supporting this noble cause of eradicating curable blindness”.



About Rotary International: Rotary International is a Voluntary organization established in 1905 and currently has over 33,000 clubs spread over 205 countries with a membership of 12.20 lakhs. RI District 3190 is one of the 32 districts in India and has over 3500 members spread over 85 clubs. Apart from Polio eradication program, Rotary has been working in the areas of Literacy through donation of school benches, note-books to govt. school children, Health & hunger area through providing heart surgeries, cataract surgeries, cleft-pallet surgeries and mid-day meals programs and water management.



About Sankara Eye Care Institutions: With 8 state-of-the-art eye hospitals in Coimbatore, Guntur, Krishnankovil, Bangalore, Shimoga, Anand, Pammal and Silvassa, Sankara Eye Care Institutions delivers quality eye care through the “Gift of Vision” rural outreach eye care programme. So far it has conducted 7,594 free weekly eye screening camps, and performed 525,000 free eye surgeries. For more information do visit www.sankaraeye.com.



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