Sankara Eye Hospital (SEH), Bangalore, launched Nayantara, a forum to support parents of children suffering from blindness or significant loss of vision to commemorate World Disability Day.
Bangalore, December 3, 2009: Sankara Eye Hospital (SEH), Bangalore, launched Nayantara, a forum to support parents of children suffering from blindness or significant loss of vision to commemorate World Disability Day. This support group is a part of the ‘Nanna Kannu’, a comprehensive initiative for children from the vulnerable population for vision defects by SEH in partnership with Sightsavers International and Government of Karnataka.
Nayantara has 3 primary objectives
Provide a Forum for the visually impaired to interact.
Provide advice on medical, educational, social opportunities and on the practicalities of daily life.
Form a support group for parents with visual impairment to help understand the emotional challenges they face, and help find services to meet the child's needs, or allow better understanding of the service system that exists.
One of the most important sources of support for most parents with visually challenged children is the opportunity to meet other parents of similar children. Nayantara would give them this opportunity and allow them to discuss common issues and learn from each other’s experiences. External resource persons would be invited at the meetings of the forum to provide information, support, and assistance to these parents, their professional partners, and their communities. Also, the forum would provide parents with opportunities to meet successful blind adults, which would help restore faith in them, that with little effort and guidance the future of their children can become bright. These interactions aims not only to address medical issues, but also issues related to education, social opportunities and on the practicalities of daily life. According to statistics, there are about 60 million persons with Disability of in India, constituting 10% of the world’s disabled population and 15% of the disabled population of the developing countries. Of the 60 million, approximately 50% are visually disabled.
Initially, SEH has identified 25 children from Varthur and KR Puram blocks of Bangalore, whose parents formed a part of very first meeting of the forum, which was held at SEH premises. At the meeting, parents interacted with each other and shared their concerns and problems amongst themselves and also with resource people from National Association for Blind, Karnataka, Enable India and Snehadeep, who offered advice and shared their experiences. The meeting was a great success with the members of the forum saying that they no longer feel alone, as they can now interact and share feelings with people who are facing the same problems as they are. It was also decided that Nayantara would meet on first Saturday of every month at the SEH premises.
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Kaushik Murali, Consultant Ophthalmologist and Director – Nanna Kannu Program, SEH Bangalore, said, “It is difficult for parents to accept that their child is being diagnosed blind and often comes as a shock for which they are not prepared. Many a times they would not have encountered a blind person before this, making it difficult to understand the special needs of the child. Yes, parents are scouting for guidance and want to help the child be independent. They are beset with many worries and have numerous questions, to which this forum would try and find answers to. It would help them to learn from each others experiences and also get expert advice. SEH has taken the initiative as there is this need has to be fulfilled as there is a vacuum for such parent support groups in India.”
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 deliver 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 you can visit www.sankaraeye.com.
The ‘Nanna Kannu’ initiative was launched in association with Sightsavers International and the Government of Karnataka to reach out to underprivileged children to screen and treat them for eye diseases. The programme hopes to benefit over
150, 000 children over the next three years. www.sankaraeye.com/nannakannu.htm
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