The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : College girls to serve the needy

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Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

College girls to serve the needy

Staff Reporter

Good response to eye camp held in association with Lions Club

35-odd persons identified for surgery
Pamphlets distributed inviting people to the camp

VIJAYAWADA: The sprawling campus of Sri Durga Malleswara Siddhartha Mahila Kalasala on Tuesday became the destination of nearly 300-odd people ailing from eye problems.

The free eye camp organised by the Youth Red Cross unit of the Siddhartha Mahila Junior Kalasala, in association with the Lions Club of Vijayawada Vision, evoked good response with residents of surrounding areas like Ramalingeswarapet, Krishnalanka, Fakirgudem, Giripuram and Patamatalanka swarming the venue.

“We not only tell our girls why serving the poor is so important but we also try to show them how sustainable and affordable services can be delivered to the poor communities,” said junior college principal K. Visala.

Vehicle ready

Realising that forging partnership was essential to accomplish the goal, the college worked in coordination with the Lions Club wing.

A vehicle belonging to the Lion’s Club was stationed on the college premises to carry the 35-odd people identified for a cataract surgery to the RR Lion’s Eye Hospital at Palakollu in West Godavari district. “Go home and pack your baggage for a couple of days and come back in a couple of hours,” G. Syam Prasad, Lions Club president, directed the patients. “The Lions Club International sponsors nearly 15 lakh cataract operations across the country annually as part of its ‘Sight First’ campaign. At the local level, we are doing our bit to remove the malady,” said Dr. Prasad.

-To propagate the eye camp, the college girls divided themselves into groups and fanned out in to the slum habitations around the college and distributed pamphlets inviting people with eye ailments to the camp.

“This was done a fortnight ago and we mainly wanted the girls to get connected with the masses at the lower rung,” said Ms. Visala.

In the first floor of the college, meanwhile, students of the junior kalasala underwent an eye-check up. “Many of them are myopic and need a pair of spectacles,” said eye specialist and general consultant K. Vijaya Sekhar, who conducted the screening tests.

Undertaking a signature campaign in support of their demand to increase the frequency of services of RTC bus on route no. 28, a visit to the malaria wing of the Public Health Department and learning how to make detergents so that the art could be imparted to the slum-dwellers were some of the recent activities of the college.

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