Nurses Day Celebration In Tulsi Eye Hospital  : 12th May 2009

Nurses Day was celebrated on 12th May 2009 as a tribute to the great nurse of the world Florence Nightingale who was born on that day on 1820. This day is celebrated to salute her great work towards the humanity and patient care.

Ms. Elizabeth Kurien, Regional Director, Sight Savers International, India & Mr. Mark Banett, Director for HR & OD Sight Savers International, UK graced the occasion. Ms Kurien and Mr Bannet felicitated all the nurses of Tulsi Eye Hospital

Workshop on Hospital Acquired Infection Control at Bojraj Eye Hospital

Bhojraj Eye Hospital , in association with Vinoba Bhave Civil Hospital (VBCH) organized a training workshop on Hospital Acquired Infection Control on the 7th of June 2009. The training program was s conducted by Dr. Jayesh Patel, the Director of the CBCC-Apollo Centre, Ahmedabad.

Dr. Das in his welcome address informed the gathering that though care is being taken by all medical professionals about hospital acquired infections, continuous awareness & exposure to information only can help reduce the incidence of such infections.

The training program, the first of its kind in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, provided hands-on exposure on simple methods for prevention of infection for both medical team and patients in the hospitals. The program included detailed discussions on regular procedures during operations and hospitalization, simple precautions that are most likely to be ignored as trivial, but are potentially dangerous if due care is not taken. Topics included information on proper sterilization of hospital instruments, handling body fluids and injections and precautions to be taken before and after operations.

Sankara Eye Care concludes a successful workshop for Officials working in Programme for Control of Blindness in Karnataka

Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore, in association with Sightsavers International, UK and the Dept of Health, Government of Karnataka organized a two-day workshop for District Eye surgeons and District Programme managers on “Best Practices in Management of Cataract”.
The workshop, the first of its kind to be held in Karnataka, was conducted by Sankara Eye Care Institutions to ensure that quality medical care is given to the needy, irrespective of socioeconomic considerations. More than 50 eye surgeons and programme managers attended the workshop from various districts in Karnataka.

Award of Best Community Driven Healthcare Program at the FICCI Healthcare Excellence Award 2009

Mission for Vision partner hospital Sankara Eye Care Institutions (SECI), India won the prestigious FICCI Healthcare Excellence Award in the category “Best Community Driven Healthcare Program” at a very gala function at Hotel Le Meridian in New Delhi. SECI was lauded for their humungous efforts in the field of community eye care since last three decades. Their Gift of Vision Community Outreach Program was the unanimous choice of judges for the sheer volume of more than 5, 00,000 free of cost eye care surgeries done so far.

Dr. RV Ramani, the Founder and Managing Trustee of SECI, India received the award on behalf of the organization. Dr. Ramani lauded the effort of his dedicated team of doctors and employees without whom the journey to eradicate curable and preventable blindness wouldn’t have been possible.

The award was presented by the Honorable Minister for State for Health and Family Welfare, Sri.Dinesh Trivedi and Ms. Shabna Azmi, Honourable Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Actor and Social Activist. The Honorable Minister specifically mentioned about SECI’s 80/20 strategy of self sustainability and expressed desire and will,  to replicate it to other organizations. This is the second recognition this year for SECIs, India after they won the Asian Management Award for Excellence in Healthcare for their Comprehensive Paediatric Eye Care Program in August 2009.

Training at Moorfield’s Eye Hospital

Dr Deepa Sonawane, Sr. Ophthalmic Surgeon underwent Observership Training for 5 weeks at the Moorfields Eye Hospital, UK.

The trainings were conducted by:

1. Prof.Richard Collins (9) - a well known extra-ocular surgeon. Almost all ophthalmologists performing extra ocular surgery and oculoplasty have directly or indirectly benefited from his training.
2. Prof. John Lee who is a pioneer in the world for using BOTOX injections in the eye.
3. Dr. Plant, a well known Neuro-Ophthalmologist.
4. Prof. Larkin, a cornea surgeon in Moorfield’s corneal transplant unit.

Donate your eyes and restore a smile !!

With this motto, Sankara Eye Care Institutions, India inaugurated Sankara Eye Bank in Bangalore. Honorable Chief Justice Santosh Hegde graced the occasion and inaugurated the eye bank.
This is the second eye bank for Sankara Eye Care Institutions, India. The eye bank has proved to be a model eye bank for the country and the institution has taken another step forward with this event.

Mr. R K Mishra, a resident of Bangalore, signed the pledge form to donate his eyes and encouraged people to come forward and contribute to the noble cause. He also volunteered to become the ambassador for Sankara Eye Bank, Bangalore.

Visit from Savitri Waney Charitable Foundation

Ms Devika Mokhtarzadeh from the Savitri Waney Charitable Trust (SWCT), who is also a very active trustee of Mission for Vision visited the Sankara Eye Hospital at Anand. She was accompanied by Ms Rebecca Peltenburg of  SWCT and Ms Suprieya of Mission for Vision.

They also visited a few beneficiaries from the surrounding villages to understand the efficacy of the surgery.

The 100 – bed Bhojraj eye hospital was inaugurated on 30th January 2007. Located in the industrial belt of Silvassa, this hospital will cater to the tribal areas of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Daman and eventually perform 10,000 free surgeries per annum.Since the inauguration, 169 free surgeries have been performed in this hospital.

Bhojraj Eye Hospital is funded by Mr. Madhu Chanrai apart being a respected industrialist engages himself in various charities. Bhoraj Eye Hospital which was recently opened in Silvassa in India is funded by him through Seth Bhojraj Hassomal Charitable Trust.

Sankara Eye Hospital at Krishnaarpanam which was managed by Dr Vivekananda Raja became part of the KKMT group of hospitals in 2004. Mr Budhrani funded the phase II expansion. With this expansion, the bed capacity has been increased to 200 and eventually the hospital expects to perform 20,000 surgeries. On 14th February, the new section of the hospital was officially inaugurated.

Ms Servanne, a flight attendant with British Airways, visited our projects in Nashik and Rishikesh for volunteering work and also to evaluate the effectiveness of the projects.

Ms Servanne was motivated to visit India during the BA foundation day in London on 14th December 2006 which was attended by Mission for Vision.

She spent a week in Tulsi Eye hospital observing the processes in the hospital and the out reach camps.

She also met a few beneficiaries who had been operated in Tulsi hospital.

Dr. R K Seth Memorial Award for the “Outstanding performance in Community Ophthalmology in India” has been conferred on Sankara Eye Centre on 8th October 2006 at New Delhi.
Three decades of dedicated service, over 3 lakhs eye surgeries to its credit, presently performing over 1250 eye surgeries every week, involved in teaching and training of medical and paramedical personnel, made a mark in research, a leader in Eye Banking and Corneal Transplants, it is little wonder that this Mission for Vision has been duly recognized at the National level.
Photo : Dr. R.V. Ramani, Managing Trustee of Sankara Eye Centre receiving the National Award from Prof. Gorden Johnson from UK. Others in the Picture are Dr. Jose, Deputy Director General of Ophthalmology – Government of India, Dr. Tanuja Joshi, Managing Director – Venu Eye Institute, New Delhi, Prof. G V S Murthy from AIIMS – New Delhi and Dr. Nelson Jesudasan.

Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB), Pallakad district, Kerala
Sankara Eye Centre, Coimbatore was invited by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi to conduct the data collection for the prevalence of blindness among the age group of 50 + population. A team comprising of 3 Ophthalmologists, 3 Administrators and 6 paramedical staff conducted the door to door survey along with volunteers from NSS College of Engineering, Pallakad.

Launch of Sankara–ORBIS Paediatric Ophthalmology Programme, Guntur. Smt JayaLakshmi, Dist Collector, was the Chief Guest for the function. The Paediatric Department, the consultation room, play area and the specially equipped paediatrics recovery room were inaugurated by the collector. Ms Jyothi Nagpal, Programme Manager, Country Office, New Delhi, ORBIS INTERNATIONAL, USA shared with the audience the philosophy of ORBIS, and appreciated the work being carried out by Sankara Eye Hospital at Guntur.

Inauguration of Genetic Research centre at Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai . Sankara Nethralaya launched a state of the art research centre to explore genetic engineering, nanotechnology and stem cell studies in an ophthalmic context. The project was inaugurated in August 2006 by the Finance Minister of India Mr P Chidambaram . The project is expected to be completed by September 2007

Strabismus Workshop was conducted at Tulsi Eye Hospital, Nashik in September 2006 in collaboration with Orbis International.

Strabismus ( also known as "heterotropia", "squint", "crossed eye"or "cockeyed',) is a condition in which the eyes are not properly aligned with each other. It typically involves a lack of coordination between the extra ocular muscles which prevents bringing the gaze of each eye to the same point in space, preventing proper binocular vision, which may adversely affect depth perception.

Dr Richard Knowlden , an International expert in Starbismus and based in Birmingham UK, conducted the training program in Strabismus and also guided the participating surgeons on the recent developments in cataract surgery.

Graduation Day ceremony of the 2nd and 3rd batches of Eye Care Managers and Vision Care Technicians of the Sankara Tulsi National Institute of Community Ophthalmology was held on19th July 2006..
The courses have been designed to ensure that along with the technical knowledge empathy and practical working skills are taught. Diploma holders today hold key positions at our hospitals in Coimbatore, Guntur and Krishnankovil. The next generation of eye care visionaries required for the proposed projects at Bangalore and Shimoga are already being trained.

Mission for Vision medical convention was held on 19th August 2006.
All key members from Mission for Vision and the partner institutions attended this convention.The panel discussed and concluded on implementation of minimum standards in the Medical Procedures at the Camp Site, at the Hospital and during post-operative period and Patients Care
The activities discussed in detail were : Outreach Activity which included Propaganda, Organisation, Manpower, Procedure, Selection of patients, Fitness, Follow up
Camp organization : To arrange for a room, drinking water facility and keeping the toilet clean are all part of Camp Organization.
In all areas we should endeavor to conduct camps with the help of an Ophthalmologist and an Optometrist. Ideally the team should also include a physician who can be arranged to visit the camp from local area on a part-time basis, a technician to carry out pathological test, an Ophthalmic Assistant and the Volunteers from the respective areas.
Also discussed were the procedures for Transportation, Pre-operation procedure, surgery procedures, and follow up schedules

Sankara Eye Care Institutions expand to Bangalore

The 9th of March was a proud day in the calendar of the Sankara Eye Care Institutions. The 225 bed super specialty eye hospital and training centre was inaugurated by the Chief Secretary in presence of the trustees from Sankara India and SEF, USA.
Shri Sudhakar Rao, IAS, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka, was the Chief Guest. He lauded the efforts of team Sankara in its endeavor to eradicate curable blindness. Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Managing Director and CEO of Infosys declared open the Infosys Community Eye Care Block with 200 beds which has been put up by Infosys Foundation. This centre will serve the rural poor who benefit from eye surgeries under the "Gift of Vision" rural outreach eye care programme in the districts of Bangalore, Bangalore rural, Mandya, Hassan, Mysore, Kolar, Tumkur and Chamrajnagar To meet the need for trained manpower, Robert Bosch Foundation, Germany has supported the hospital in establishing a training programme in community ophthalmology which will train medical, para medical and administrative staff.
Participating in the function Mr. Murali Krishnamurty, Chairman Sankara Eye Foundation USA, recognised the collective effort of several NRIs in USA and Kannadigas in particular who have contributed to the Bangalore Hospital through the Sankara Eye Foundation and the Association of Kannada Kootas of America (AKKA).
Dr S V Balasubramaninam recognised the partners in service with a memento and the formal vote of thanks was proposed by our well wisher and Trustee Shri J M Chanrai.

Nirmal Ashram Eye Institute Celebrates its First Anniversary

The 3 day function to commemorate the completion of one year of NEI at the present location of Khairikalan was celebrated with auspicious fervor of “Akhand Kirtan” by 51 ‘pathis’. The function was inaugurated by HH Mahant Ram Singh ji and Jodh Singh ji Maharaj. OPD registration during the three days was all time high of about 250. The celebrations were in tune with the completion of 2927 surgeries in one year and is planned to scale it up to 9000 surgeries in the coming year. The last quarter (Jan – March 2008) was remarkable with the consistent performance of over 500 surgeries per month.

Award for Maj Zarekar

Major D.K. Zarekar (Rtd). Chief Executive Director Tulsi Eye Hospital honored with “Gaurav Suraksha Puraskar” on 4th March 08 at Fravashi Academy. The award is bestowed be Ex servicemen Development Association of Maharashtra state for outstanding service to the Nation and the Society.

Sankara Eye Hospital, Guntur Celebrates 4th Anniversary

Sankara eye hospital, Guntur celebrated its 4th anniversary on 22nd March 2008.The function started with a welcome address by Mr.Rajgopalan, followed by addresses by Dr Mahesha & Dr Chandra Mohan. Dr JK Reddy gave of the prizes to the participant staff members. He expressed his happiness at the way the hospital has turned out and exhorted all the staff to continue the good work.

Mr and Mrs Chanrai visits Nirmal Eye Institute, Rishikesh

Mr J.M. Chanrai along with Mrs. Chanrai, visited Nirmal Ashram Eye Institute, in January 2008 to review the activities of NEI. They went around observing the patient registration, OPD activities, optometric measurements, fundus and other examinations being conducted by ophthalmic consultants and para-medical staff. They spent time in the wards with patients and attended patient counseling session. Mr Chanrai also reviewed various procedures in operation theatre.

Nirmal eye institute reaches out to unserved areas

NEI with its commitment to serve the poorest of poor, ventured in Kalsi- Chakrata area, unserved to a large extent so far. A camp was organized on March, 9 at ‘Koti- Chadi’, with cooperation of local people and irrigation department hospital. His Holiness Sant Jodh Singhji Maharaj, graced the occasion by inaugurating the camp. His Holiness was happy to see the response of patients. He distributed ‘Prasad’ to patients and prayed for everybody’s wellbeing. 160 patients were screened and 36 patients were brought to the hospital for surgery. Seeing the good response and need of the area, a series of camps have been planned by outreach team in this area.

Bhojraj Eye hospital funded primarily by Mr. M B Chanrai through Seth Bhojraj Hassomal Charitable trust recently completed one year of functioning.

The General Manager Brig. M.S.Dhillon complimented the team for their high level of involvement and motivation in performing 1673 surgeries and screening 1843 cases in one year.
As part of Mission for Vision’s strategy, this hospital will henceforth be managed by Dr R V Ramani, Sankara eye Center, Coimbatore. This hospital will now be called as an “Unit of Sankara Eye Care institution’s.

Nirmal hospital achieves highest monthly surgeries

30th November 2007 was a red-letter day in the history of Nirmal Ashram Eye Institute. On this day, the hospital completed 353 surgeries for the month of November 2007; this being the highest number of surgeries performed in a month since the commencement of the program in January 2005. Mission for Vision congratulates the team of Dr Ravishankar, Dr Faisal, Dr Anjana Kumari and Col Akhil Gupta on this phenomenal achievement.

Visit from Savitri Waney Charitable trust

Ms Rebecca Peltenburg of Savitri Waney Charitable trust visited Nirmal eye hospital in December 2007 to gain a first hand experience on the functioning of the hospital. This was her first visit to the hospital after the re-opening following the upgradation of the hospital.

The Khumbhabhishekam of the newly-built Sri Sudharshana Vinayaka temple was performed at the Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore. Kumbhabhishekam (reconsecration) is the process of infusing divinity and spiritual power into the vigrahas (images of the deities) of the temple. The various rituals were performed over 3 days culminating in the consecration of the deity and the Kalasa pooja.The kumbhabhishekam was performed by Avudayar, head priest of the Kamakshi temple before a large gathering of our donors and well wishers. Volunteers from India and SEF USA, apart from doctors, staff and trustees and well wishers of Sankara participated. The hospital would be functional from March 2008.

1st National Symposium of Community Ophthalmology Society of India at Coimbatore.

The first annual symposium of the Confederation of Community eye care institutions in India, under the banner of Community Ophthalmology Society of India was hosted by Sankara Eye Centre, Coimbatore. The 2 day meeting saw the convergence of grassroots organization involved in primary health, curative and rehabilitative agencies.

The second Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Oration, instituted by Sankara Eye Centre was delivered by Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya,  Dr. S S Badrinath. He spoke on the importance of public-private partnership in eye care. Health Secretary of Tamilnadu V.K. Subburaj delivered the valedictory address and appreciated the role played by community eye care organizations in the crusade against avoidable blindness.

Sankara Rural Eye Hospital, Krishnarpanam…

The Krishnarpanam Sankara Rural Eye Hospital, Krishnakoil is located near the temple town of Srivilliputhur around 70 kilometres south of Madurai. The state-of-the-art facility is oriented toward providing patient-friendly care. The complete renovation of the original hospital, medical equipments and the expansion of the phase II of the hospital has been funded by one of the core donors and trustees of Mission for Vision, Mr. D N Budhrani.