13,000 examined at week-long eye camp in Amritsar
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Asia
By ASR |
Nov 17, 2008 - 10:47:54 PM
A foreign doctor examines a patient during an eye camp in Amritsar.
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Amritsar: More than 13,000 persons were examined and provided spectacles, while 25 patients suffering from cataract were operated upon in the week-long free eye camp that concluded here yesterday. It was organised by the US-based Luxottica Foundation Group in association with lions clubs and the All-India Pingalwara Charitable Society. The camp was dedicated to the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
The camp was organised under a “Give the gift of sight” programme of the foundation group, which provides free vision care and eyewear to people in need across the USA and around the world who do not have access to eye care.
A team of experts from across the globe, including Italy, Germany, Canada and the USA, besides India, participated in the camp. They were equipped with the latest gadgets to provide on-the-spot checking eyesight and providing spectacles.
Mission manager David Brumen, talking to The Tribune, said the foundation group was a non-profit organisation established for providing free vision care. He said the mission was camping for the past one week in Pingalwara. The organisation was set up in 1991 and since then it has sponsored hundreds of missions across the world, he added. Every year the mission visits about 20 to 25 countries and it came to India for the first time.
Dr Balwant Singh Hansra, who was instrumental in organising the camp, said the mission had brought about 42,000 spectacles with it. He said about 135 volunteers from medical colleges participated in the programme. Jeevan Singh, a lion club member, said about 250 cataract patients were examined and of them 25 were operated upon at the government hospital.