Penned by Board Member, Ms. Alo Pal
pictures of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo
Pictures of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, tastefully decorated with flowers, greeted the 15-member team comprising two doctors and technicians who arrived at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Lake Estates at 8:30 a.m. on March 15th. They were welcomed by the Lake Estates staff, the Sharana team, and members of The Golden Chain Fraternity (GCF), the alumni association of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.
Program Managers Mr. Anbazhagan & Mr. Ravianand in action
Members of the Golden Chain Fraternity
Within an hour, the camp was set up—the shamianas, the various stations comprising registration, eye check-up, refraction chek-up & spectacles presciption, cataract testing, blood pressure and sugar testing, doctor consultation and medication and eye drop prescription. By 9:30 a.m., after a short meditation, beneficiaries from the surrounding villages started to arrive and get their eyes checked.
The camp wound up at 6:30 p.m. In total, 328 beneficiaries underwent detailed eye check-ups, of which 236 were women and 92 men. Fifteen of them have been referred for cataract surgery, which will be performed on March 30th. A total of 154 persons were prescribed glasses, many of which were handed over on the spot, thanks to the efficient system of lens and frame fixes mastered by the staff at Aravind Eye Hospital.
The Lake Estates hosted the camp and provided water and buttermilk to the beneficiaries, as well as lunch and refreshments for the doctors, Sharana and GCF staff, and volunteers. They also arranged transportation for the beneficiaries to attend the camp. The GCF covered the cost of the glasses, Aravind Eye Hospitals will perform the cataract surgeries free of charge, and the Lake Estates will provide transportation for the beneficiaries to and from the hospital, including their return two days post-surgery.
refreshment
People from nearby villages arrived via arranged transport.
Sharana, with its long-standing experience in organizing medical camps and its prior collaboration with Aravind Eye Hospitals for multiple eye camps at its premises, served as the nodal organization—coordinating between all the organizations involved, assisting with banners and publicity, and managing registrations.
This was an efficiently organized collaborative effort by four outstanding institutions: the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Lake Estates, Aravind Eye Hospitals, the Golden Chain Fraternity, and, of course, Sharana. If this isn’t a manifestation of collaborative action for the greater common good, I don’t know what is.
