On the 117 birth anniversary of Paramhansa Sant Hirdaram Sahib ji on 21 September, a two-month-long screening for diabetes and diabetic retinopathy campaign was launched by Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital. The campaign is in partnership with Lions Club of International Foundation and Sight First NGO’s.
Screening for 40 years and plus age group is being conducted in all the 39 vision centers located in 10 districts of Madhya Pradesh. On the day of the inaugural, 560 were screened. Of this, 326 were male and 234 were female.
Sr. official of Lion Club International Foundation Shri. JPS Johar inaugurated the campaign. On the occasion Lion Kamal Bhandari, JSS Secretary Shri. Mahesh Dayaramani, Lion Jaipal Sachdev, Managing Trustee Shri. L.C. Janiyani were also present.
Nisha Solanki belongs to a large family of two brothers and four sisters (of whom 3 are married). Both her brothers and elder sister attend school. Nisha’s father is mentally challenged. The responsibility of earning is on the mother, who is a daily wage farm labourer and grandmother, who tends to her goats. Two earing members for a family of ten.
Blindness in children leads to deep impact on psychological, emotional, and socioeconomic growth to the family. A child with blindness is more likely to have delays in developmental milestones, to be more frequently hospitalized, and die during childhood than a sighted child. Such severe vision loss also adversely effects the educational activities, orientation, and mobility from the early stage of life resulting in lack of employment privilege. These differential characteristics between a sighted and non-sighted child is more obvious in developing countries. Moreover, the disability adjusted life years (DALY) loss in a blind child is far more than that of adults with blindness.