3 minute read
Mission Shiksha
An initiative for maths education for blind and low-vision children.
Accessing quality higher education is a challenge for students with low-vision or incurable blindness. In addition, these students require specialised training methods and facilities. Due to poor maths teaching facilities for blind children, they often opt out of the subject or take up lower level of maths. As a result, they lose out while competing for entrance exams and other professional courses. Through the Mission Shiksha project, Mission for Vision focuses on rehabilitation and strengthening mathematical skills required for children with vision impairment. The Mission Shiksha is a collaborative effort with National Association for the Blind (NAB), India to promote inclusive education and reduce inequalities.
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A total of 51 students enrolled for this programme last year and Mission for Vision supported them by way of providing dedicated teachers who enable children with visual impairment to pursue mathematics and stay within mainstream education. The students who have been a part of this programme have experienced dramatic change in their learning experience. All the 11 students passed their tenth standard board exams. Eight of them scored 60% and above and we had two students who scored 94% in their maths exam.
The FICCL-MFV partnership, which started with a single programme in 2015, has today spread across India with as many as 9 such holistic programmes. Our journey over the years has ensured that thousands of lives have been touched and benefitted from quality eye care services, which people can avail from the comfort of their homes. We set out on this path with the mission of improving vision care across regions, gender and age groups; and today, I can proudly say that we are closer to achieving that. Working with the MFV team gives us confidence of walking many more miles to serve our community. Ms. Shilpa Desai GM-Head, Marketing & CSR, Fullerton India Credit Company Limited
The active collaboration between Mission for Vision and Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya (SSN) has been instrumental in taking our eye care services to the rural populace of Assam at their doorsteps by adopting the motto of ‘hub and spoke’ and methodology of ‘last man connectivity’ in the area which means ‘reaching out to unreached’. This partnership has given a fillip to comprehensive eye care in the state of Assam and the North East India as a whole.
Dr. Harsha Bhattacharjee, President, Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya
PEELING THE LAYERS OF PRODUCTIVITY
49-year-old Mr. Rajendran (name changed) is a resident of Benkikere village in Davangere. He works as a coconut peeler and is also routinely involved in agricultural activities. Mr. Rajendran’s village has no medical facilities and the villagers travel to the neighbouring town at a distance of 5 kms for their health check-up.
Mr. Rajendran was facing the issue of poor vision for the past one year but he did not take it seriously and continued to go about his daily routine of coconut peeling and agriculture work. However, over a span of few weeks he realised that it was not temporary and it was only getting from bad to worse. He visited a private hospital and they identified issues in his right eye. His vision in the right eye was 3/60 and the private hospital quoted him a fee of INR 18,000 (USD 245) for further treatment. Since he did not have that much money, he began speaking to his friends with a hope that he could borrow the money. During this process, one of his friends recommended him to go to Aralihalli village where MFV’s partner hospital Sankara Eye Hospital, Shimoga was conducting an eye camp at no cost to the community members. He attended the camp conducted by the hospital and as advised by them; he underwent surgery. His surgery was successful and he started noticing the positive changes in his daily lifestyle. Before surgery he could peel only 700 to 800 coconuts per day. Post-surgery, he could peel up to 1000-1500 per day. His daily income rose from INR 500 (USD 6) to INR 1,000 (USD 13). He is very happy with this outcome and he thanked all the doctors, nurses, camp organisers and partners for helping restore his vision.
