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FOCUS AREA:
This is a humanitarian project which will provide much needed cataract operations for the needy in rural districts around Pune. Avoidable blindness is also the major thrust for RID 3131 in this Rotary year. This project falls under the Rotary Focus area of disease prevention and treatment.
PROJECT NEED:
The cataract eye operating facilities in India is inadequate for its teeming population due to three prime reasons.
1) Health care allocation by the government is very low. India spends only 1.6% of GDP on health care versus 18.0% of GDP in the US.
2) Untreated cataract is the main cause of avoidable blindness in India.
3) Only 40% of cataract surgeries are done in government clinics. Most are done by NGOs (charitable trusts) or private hospitals (expensive).
4) With the lock down due to Covid-19, there is an even greater need for more cataract surgeries to be done, when conditions improve.
Untreated cataract is the cause of blindness in 80% of cases in India. There are various reasons for inability of patients to get their cataract treated including cost of treatment, lack of available treatment facilities, lack of awareness that treatment is possible, fear and personal reasons. A much higher prevalence of blindness due to cataract occurs in rural areas of the country due to limited available facilities.
Sports City and its partners have the added benefit of having completed several eyes cataract projects over the years. Sports City also has its own well renowned ophthalmologist Rtn Dr Rajesh Pawar leading this avoidable blindness project. Dr Pawar continues to perform thousands of cataract operations over the past several years.
Eyes awareness camps to educate the rural population about cataract and its symptoms, causes, risk factors, safe treatment and prevention will be the first step in this project. This is done before the eye check-up camp begins. A team of well-trained experienced medical and non-medical staff visit pre-planned rural towns and villages and hold eye check-up camps. Free distribution of reading glasses enables a large crowd to attend the eye check-up camps. Trained doctors then check all the camp attendees mainly for cataract and those in need are again tested for blood pressure and diabetes (urine test), before being taken back by bus to the hospital in Pune for their cataract surgery. Within a couple of days, the operated patients are taken back to their town or village. The awareness camps, testing, transport, surgery, all medication, meals, hospital stay and dark glasses are all covered under this amount of Rs 3000 per eye cataract surgery. The hospital team have been doing such eye camps and cataract surgeries over the past 30 years.
PROJECT COST AND ESTIMATE:
1. Intraocular Lens Cataract Operation: Rs 3000 X 1000 = Rs 30,00,000 including awareness and diagnostics camps, transport, operation, hospitalization, medicine etc
2. Miscellaneous (Audit, Exchange, Public Image, Signage etc): Rs 75,000
Total Rs 30,75,000 (USD 41,000 @ Rs 75=$1.00)
PROJECT BENEFITS:
Over 10,000 rural needy people will attend the awareness eye camps where they are given the basic eye care information and the benefits of cataract surgeries. Most important are the 1000 diagnosed needy patients who will have regained their full sight, thanks to the cataract surgeries, to the delight of their families and friends.
PROPOSED FINANCING:
Contributors Contribution TRF Matching
Host Clubs (Sports City/Partners*) $ 10000 $ 0
International Partner Club/s $ 3000 $ 0
Host District 3131 (DDF) $ 10000 $ 10000
International District RID (DDF) $ 4000 $ 4000
Total $ 27000 $ 14000
Grand Total $ 41000 (Rs 30,75,000)
*Considering 4 or more local synergy club partners from RID 3131
Contacts:
Rtn Manojeet Chowdhury, cmanojeet@yahoo.com; +91 95270 26655
Rtn Sandesh Savant, sandeshsavant@rediffmail.com; +91 98220 91102
Rtn Dr Rajesh Pawar, dr.rajeshpawar@gmail.com; +91 98901 14986
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