During my most recent visit to Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, I inquired about a young man I interviewed for last year’s “Development Dialogue” video. I asked about him because he left a lasting impression on me. Last year, he told me about his daily routine. During his mornings, he would go work at a restaurant where he cleaned the bathrooms. After that, he would come to Samarthanam for English and computer classes. He came to this institution because he wanted a better job and a better future. While interacting with this young man who was blind in one eye, it wasn’t just his story that touched me. When I talked to him, I felt he was being sincere. I never felt like he was telling me these things to get attention; rather, it was to tell me who he was as an individual. When I went back to Samarthanam this time around, I was hoping to hear how this young man has progressed. Unfortunately, what I heard left me feeling uneasy for the next few days.
Since my time in the Sandbox, I have understood blindness through the lens of Samarthanam. My second experience with the issue of blindness would be with Orbis International. During our last Sandbox Fellow’s meeting, we met with Mr. Golden Frankly, a Program Manager for Orbis. This organization works all over the world to eliminate blindness. In the Sandbox , Orbis has a partnership with the M.M Joshi Eye Institute, a renowned local eye hospital, to operate vision centers in the small towns of Mungod, Alnavar and Akki Alur. For an hour, the Fellows and I had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Frankly about blindness, the Sandbox and his experience as a young professional.
Before moving on, here are some quick facts from Orbis about blindness in India:
- India shoulders the world’s largest burden of blindness. Of a total population exceeding 1 billion, as many as 15 million people are blind, with an additional 52 million visually-impaired.
-Among those are 320,000 children under the age of 16, constituting one fifth of the world’s blind children.
Mr. Frankly first talked about how Orbis not only addresses the health aspects of blindness, but the educational aspect as well. Many people are still uneducated about this disease, especially in village areas. Some people think of certain eye diseases as good luck, while others see it as a curse. During my time at Samarthanam, some students talked about how different individuals in society thought blindness was a result of a sin from a previous life. Mr. Frankly told us some misconceptions he has heard throughout his life, as well as with his time at Orbis. It’s very disheartening to hear how people view this disease. Many people talk about how the health issues of blindness should be addressed, but what some don’t realize is that the educational campaign is just as important.
When our discussion moved to the Sandbox, Mr. Frankly talked about the projects going on in Mungod, Alnavar and Akki Alur. In these three towns, Orbis has vision centers run by local youth who have been trained in common eye disorders, refractive errors, the use of a slit lamp and management. Eye technicians see patients everyday and provide reading glasses, write prescriptions and make referrals to the M.M Joshi Eye Institute. To make sure people can afford these services, each patient is only charged Rs. 20 per visit. Reading glasses are sold for Rs. 100 a pair (Rs. 50-100 below the market rate). Since the launch of these centers in November 2009, Orbis has screened 4,750 patients, made 1,023 referrals, and prescribed 1, 654 spectacles. Despite these successes, the need is still high in the Sandbox, and Orbis hopes that program will continue to grow.
When I asked some people at Samarthanam how the young man I interviewed last year was now doing, someone mentioned to me he wasn’t able to finish the program. Because of some personal issues, he could not go through with it, and had to leave. Now, he is working at a small factory doing manual labor. It made me upset to hear this. The NGOs in the Sandbox work so hard to try to put individuals on track for a bright future, but sometimes life has other plans.
It’s easy to become pessimistic about things when you hear about this, but in the end all you can do is have hope. For this young man and the millions of other visually-disabled individuals I have hope that they still have a bright future ahead of them. I still have hope next time I stop by the office, I will be hearing great things about this young man.
Tags: Blindness, M.M Joshi Eye Institute, Media Fellow, Orbis International, Sandbox, The Deshpande Foundation
