Children with poor vision can also go to school

Times News Network

New Delhi: Children with extremely poor vision can be trained to be productive adults by teaching them how to use their residual vision so that they could be integrated into any school system.

Sachu Rajasekharan, a vision rehabilitation specialist at Dr Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH) in Daryaganj, says in some children, vision can be so poor that it cannot be improved simply through corrective glasses.

Such children need to learn to use their residual vision as well as develop adaptive skills to be able to function normally.

The SCEH set up a centre specially created to look after the eye problems of children on May 23 this year.

The building was a gift from the Ronald McDonald House charities, given through ORBIS International.

The Times Foundation, which has not contributed to the building till this date, is, however, helping in propagating the excellent work being done with the help of these charities.

Set up entirely without any government founding, this private partnership has helped SCEH create an unmatched state-of-the-art children's eye facility in the Capital.

A playroom in the midst of this centre, with slides, toys and tricycles, makes it a convenient and attractive place for both parents and children to visit.

Child friendly furniture, mats to ensure that children do not get hurt while playing and tempered glass serves to enhance the quality of services.

"We are looking at children not as small adults but as people with their own special problems and needs. We're trying to say that there are facilities now for children's eye care," says chief executive officer of SCEH, Steven Roy.

Therefore, the centre has specialised facilities for treating children with squint and cataract among other vision problems.

In fact, Roy says, it is critical to treat congenital cataract as soon as possible after birth.

"With visual inputs, the brain develops," adds Roy. While providing all these services to out-patients, the SCEH also makes an additional effort from its outreach base in Alwar.

Volunteers have been going from house-to-house in Alwar to identify eye problems, says Roy.

In about 50,000 children that they screened, some 17 percent were found to have eye problems.

Source: The Times of India
Dated :22nd November, 2002