An eye-screening camp was organised on Friday for the local communities at the K. Narayanapura Primary Health Centre by The Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind (Sightsavers) India Board under the Amrita Drishti Urban Eye Care Project. According to a press release, members of the board, including Chairman S.Y. Quraishi and chief executive officer R.N. Murthy, were in the city to witness the camp, which was organised with support from the local PHC to reach out to people in a more comprehensive manner.
Amrita Drishti is an initiative by Sightsavers that began last September with the aim of covering 15 slums in the city by the end of 2016. The project was launched under Sightsavers’ National Urban Eye Health strategy. It strives to reach out to the urban poor to reduce the occurrence of potential eye diseases.
The release added that as many as 5,300 slum-dwellers have been screened at a centre located in Frazer Town and that 77 camps have been conducted across 15 slums. A total of 219 slum-dwellers have been operated on for cataract free of cost and 420 people have been provided spectacles. The implementing partner is Nayonika Eye Care Charitable Trust, a city-based eye care charity.
