SIAO 3rd Partner's Meet : 24-25 Nov, 2010

By Moderator

A two day partner meet on Nov 24th and 25th was organized by Sightsavers for all its partners at Sankar Foundation, Visakhapatanam, Andhra Pradesh.

Mr Arun Karidehal, CEO-Sankar Foundation welcoming the guests.

The function was formally inaugurated by the Chief Guest Mr. U. Shankara iah (Joint Director, NPCB) and Ms. Geetha Prasadini (Add. Director, Communicable Diseases and IDSP) alongwith Shankar Rao (Founder of Sankar Foundation).

Ms Shanti Raghavan (Founder -Enable India, Bangalore) felicitated by Mr Shrinivas Sawant for being chosen for the National Award (2010) under "Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities" category.

Dr Kaushik Murali (SKKMT Bangalore) felicitated by Ms Geetha Prasadini for reciving FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards 2009.

Felicitation by Mr Murthy (Additional Director - Dept Social Welfare) for Partners winning NCPEDP Mphasis Universal Design Awards-2010. Ms Neha Trivedi (XRCVC, Mumbai) on behalf of Dr Sam Taraporewala under persons with disability who have created an impact in accessibility and universal design. Proj M S Raju (Vision Aid, Vizag) for professionals working for the cause of accessibility and universal design.

rMr Shrinivas Sawant and Mr Shankar Rao (Founder-Sankar Foundation) having hearty laugh while appreciating the chosen gift.

43 participants from five states.

Social evening at terrace garden of Hotel Daspalla Executive Court, Vizag.

Poster exhibited by Jan Kalyan Samakhya (JKS) depicting vision centres as a first helping hand for community

Exhibition by a DPO formed under ORRC (Vizag Network) for marketing phenols, candles and fertilizers.

NAB Karnataka exhibiting their work on IE in Gulbarga.

Dr Tushar Yarmal (SIAO) giving feedback on a session.

Mr Sabitra Kundu beautifully hosted the session on both the days.

Bidding farewell to my Vizag Partners (ORRC, JKS, TARA)

Vibrant group busy in discussion on challenges faced during implementation of education projects.

Ms Supriya (Lotus College of Optometry, Mumbai) showing the group photograph. The MEC team from Lotus and KBHS stayed back for two more days to see the vision centres of Vizag Network.

Ms Shrinivas Sawant looking at CTRD Trust's (The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu) where they have consituted 30 self help groups of 200 PWDs including 52 visually impaired persons. These SHGs are formed under Mahillir Thittam Scheme of state government. This has been possible due to the new Sightsavers supported advocacy project called SNEHA Project (Strengthening Network for Eye Health and Advocacy)

What's cooking here ! Mr Prabhat Sinha and Mr Ketan Kothari won accolades for their session on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) on day 2 of the meeting. The participants were bowled over by the advocacy milestons achieved in Rajasthan. To complement, Mr Ketan's speech on Right to Education came as an eye opener for many of the participants.

The lush green scenic grasses over Vizag when Mumbai Eye Care Campaign Team took lessons from JKS and ORRC vision centres. The Vizag vision centres have been supported by Sightsavers and have become sustainable in two years since their establishment.

Dr Athar Qureshi (Project Manager-MEC) and Mr Deepak Lalge (KBHB, Mumbai) taking tips from a sustainable vision centre of Vizag Network.

This was the first time when SIAO conducted partner's meet away from Mumbai.

The next SIAO partner's meet will be organized in Bangalore.

A special holiday in london !

By Mariamma, Ilda, Emily, John, Krishna, Sahadeo, Gajanan & Shantaram

It was a dream came true for all of us when we learned that we have an all expense paid holiday in London. It was exciting and we were eagerly looking forward to it. We were all excited the moment we realized that eight of us from Regional Office were travelling together to UK for a holiday. Thanks for making this “Dream come True” through Sightsavers’ Long Service Reward Trip!
For most of us, this being our first International tour, a little nervousness and anxiety was there in our minds. On 11th July 2010, as soon as we landed safely at the Gatwick Airport we could feel the cool breeze passing through and on the way from the Airport to the Hotel Arora, we were mesmerized by the beauty of the location and all our worries and anxieties faded.

Sightsavers Head Quarters at Haywards Heath

Atta boys in office backyard

On 12th July 2010 we were on the way to Sightsavers Office at Haywards Heath and were taken aback at the beautiful scenery, the calmness and its landscape some of us felt wow! The Heaven on Earth! Having reached Sightsavers Office and being introduced to Staff members we were touched by their warm hospitality. Having received the recognition and acknowledgement of Long service award, made all of us feel marvelous and speechless. (thanks to Mark Barrette & Elizabeth for making this happen!).

It was very kind of Alicia to take us for sightseeing to London, the Duck Tour – which was amazing, Trip to London’s West End & Shopping on Oxford Street! The next day we visited ICEH, went again for sightseeing around London Bridge, Tower of London and of course the London Eye! The next two days it was Clare Oliver’s turn, who took us to Brighton, Brighton pier and we enjoyed the famous fish and Chips! We visited the North Lanes, the Royal Pavilion. We enjoyed travelling by the metro rail – which was again a new experience for most of us. In the evening on 15th July we had visited the country park, enjoyed the bowling ball and then the lovely dinner arranged by Jane, Carol and Christie.

Our special thanks to Alicia, Calre, Jane, Carol and Christie.

We all enjoyed the sightseeing, shopping and we were wondering how soon those five days flew away!

Each and every one of us felt this was the most memorable trip down to UK and wish more to follow!!!!!!!

SAME Workshop at Malawi

By Jayashree Kumar

North India Area Office

The visit to Malawi was planned to attend a regional workshop on SAME (Sightsavers Aligned Monitoring & Evaluation) from 25-27 Sept 10 at Crossroads Hotel, Lilongwe.

Key learnings

1. The integration of PEC into PHC through Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) is a strong foundation for a more sustainable delivery of eye health services. I was impressed by the HSAs – they are very well equipped with skills to identify & treat basic eye conditions & cases requiring more complex treatment referred to the district hospital. But this all depends upon how the health workers are provided with correct knowledge, skills & sensitivity to prioritize eye health.


2. The eye care activities when easily linked with other departments have potential of getting more resources & a wider coverage. For ex- There are no separate eye camps held at PHC rather it is clubbed with other camps organized at the fixed dates.


3. It was interesting to know - Sightsavers & MOH officials make a joint visit (once in every quarter ) to the project implementing districts which they call it –support visits . They review & discuss the progress & suggest areas which need improvement at the district & PHC level . Ownership of the programme is seen – leading to the sustainability of the programme.


4. Malawi is short of trained health workers, not least eye specialists. with only four ophthalmologists in Malawi, a priority has been to train other health workers in eye care. So creating a more efficient workforce & primary eye care workers who can bring eye care to communities are given focused attention here.

* HSA: Sightsavers has supported Ministry of Health in developing a PEC training manual for HSAs which was intended to provide knowledge & skills to facilitate identification, treatment & referral of patients with eye conditions.( I have a copy of the manual if you want to refer). The Opthalmic Clinical Officer (OCO) uses this manual while training the Health workers.

Thankful to all the team members of the Malawi Sighsavers country office for the hospitality & the valuable time given during my visit. The Country Director Mercy Masoo has promised me to visit India to get an exposure of India programmes.

So that’s the Advocacy I have done …………………

And the award goes to ...

By Little Birdy

June 22, 2010 was the deciding day when we all were keeping our fingers crossed for making the winning entry at the UK Annual Meeting Award Night!

Amidst all the curiosity, it was North West India team who did the winning goal and received the award under category for best example of ensuring eye health & social inclusion programmes are rooted in community development. The special award for lifetime contribution to Sightsavers was given to the longest serving support team to India Regional Support Team (Sahadeo Kamble, Ilda Fernandes, Mariamma Jose, Emily Sajan, Krishna Bhuvad, Shantaram Kalambate, John D' Souza and Gajanan Bandabe). Hope their travel diary on return from UK will be full of interesting stories !

North West India Area Office won an "Oscar" for a range of programme initiatives including CES approach in the Thar Desert, PPP model with SEWA Rural*

Dr Caroline Harper (CEO) with the coach of winning team Abraham George (Area Director, NWAO)*

Other selected nominations from India under different categories are given below:

• Best example of a scalable approach to eye health: South India Area Office for vision centre and paediatric outreach and India Regional Office for Cataract and Diabetic Retinopathy guidelines
• Best example of scalable approaches to education of visually impaired children: India Regional Office for development of new project design to align India Region IE programme with SIM card objectives
• Best example of enabling BPOs/DPOs to advocate effectively for members’ rights: North West India Area Office for advocacy initiatives by DPOs in Western Rajasthan
• Best example of ensuring eye health & social inclusion programmes are rooted in community development: South India Area Office for projects on village EC Committees and advocacy
• Best Programme Innovation: North East India Area Office for VMA low vision programme
• Best Support Innovation: Ranjish Kattady & India MIS team for establishment of an effective information sharing system
• Most innovative fundraising/marketing campaign: South India Area Office for Mumbai Eye Care Campaign
• The most fundraising miles: South India Area Team – 12 runners @ 6K each
• Support Team of 2010: Social Inclusion trainers (Diane, Gertrude and Praveen) for Social Inclusion workshop

This was the first time during the Annual Meeting that a trip to Buckingham Palace was organized.

(L to R) Abraham George (Area Director -North West Area Office), Archana Bhambal (Area Director-North India Area Office), Shrinivas Sawant(Area Director - South India Area Office) , Elizabeth Kurian (Regional Director - India Region) and Prasannakumar (Area Director - North East India Area Office) **

Group of delighted visitors **

*Photo Courtesy: Akbar Mehfuz Alam; **Photo Courtesy: Elizabeth Kurian

Self Analysis – A Tool to Empower Oneself

By Dr Sandeep Kulshrestha

skulshreshta@sightsavers.org “In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.”

- Deepak Chopra

How many times in life we face a situation, when we feel everything is going wrong against us? I think many a times we face these challenges, be at work place, or in relationships or elsewhere and we always feel that we are perfect, it is the others who spoil everything. Do we analyse holistically as to what could be the reasons for this and try to ponder on questions like, “Why did my boss questioned me today, what did I do which made him behave this way with me” or say, “Why was my wife in this mood today”. The answer lies in Self Analysis as it is finally the individual who has to take a call and analyse his/her strengths and limitations on a day to day basis and following can be a way in doing that;

Be still in a space of your own
Play some soothing music, preferably of a flute and be conscious about your being. Do this at your home and be alone. Don’t brood or spoil your mood. Just be yourself and think of the day gone by and in a flash, remember the low points and high points of the day and tell yourself that you will not repeat the low points again. Keep aside your ego.

Go Backwards
Whenever you have some trouble, say at workplace, go backwards in your career, in your thoughts and see whether this kind of trouble had occurred that time. If yes, then what did you do to tackle that. If you did nothing that time, this is the time to do something about it. Remember, every mistake has to result in an action plan to correct that. You cannot ever change someone else, the least you can do is to change yourself.

Write down your strengths and limitations
At every month end, most of the people check their bank balances. Its all the more better to check your “emotional abundance” and maintain a diary, where you should write your strengths and weaknesses in a particular month, along with at least one thing you would have done differently

Have a Goal Map
Develop a Goal map about what you are today and what you intend to be in future. Example; I will be a Head of my department/division and will have a house and a car of my own in 2015. It can also be a short term goal like I will not repeat this mistake ever again

Have self-esteem
Don’t do self analysis with self-pity. Analyse as if you are good enough as an individual having high self esteem and see things in a holistic perspective, with a belief that all individuals have their perceptions. Hence, self analysis is more of self awareness and the ways in which you can harmonize your life. Every human being is different and one has to accept this. But we can always try in our own way to analyse ourselves and be intelligent human beings. And, surprisingly it works as a tool to empower ourselves.

Suggested readings:
1. Goal Mapping, available at http://www.flipkart.com/goal-mapping-brian-maynes-practical-book-1842931385
2. Key To Living The Law Of Attraction, available at http://www.flipkart.com/key-living-law-attraction-jack-book-8189975846

Enabling Kolkata to have a better vision !

By Sampa Paul
spaul@sightsavers.org

As a first initiative to the human resource development, in the “Kolkata Urban Comprehensive Eye Care Project” the training of 40 participants was conducted from 21st to 23rd June, 2010. Participants included project team and health workers.

On the first day, participants were oriented about the project’s goal, outcome and activities. The second day revolved around eye health specially early identification of diseases causing avoidable blindness such as Cataract and Glaucoma. The third day focused on the concepts of community mobilization, understanding of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Health systems, counseling of the community through participative role plays and discussions.

Health workers during a role play.

The training was facilitated by Sightsavers North East India Office team members namely Sudipto Mohanty (Programme Manager), Praveen Kumar (Senior Programme Officer), Shantha Kumari Gopal (Programme Officer) and myself. Experts from partner organisations like Mr Gopal (Secretary, Sunderban Social Development Centre), Dr Sil (Chief Medical Officer of Vivekananda Mission Ashram), Dr Abhijeet Nandi (State Public Health Advisor of the Panchayat and Rural Development of West Bengal) were invited to impart training on selected topics.

Dr Sil addressing the participants

The training proved to be very beneficial for the health workers in a way that beside the learning objective they got a chance to know each other and foster the synergy of partnership and making a difference in the millions of lives living in Kolkata.

We really believe that this cadre of health workers will be the workforce in helping Kolkata to have a better vision!

Social Inculsion Workshop in West Africa : 17th to 19th May, 2010

By Praveen Kumar

pkumar@sightsavers.org

As part of my interest in the Social Inclusion Theme and need of the partners a workshop design was developed and a 3 day workshop on Social Inclusion of PWDs was conducted at Bhubneshwar in January, 2009. This workshop design was later considered as a global template for Sightsavers and thus the workshop was replicated in Bangladesh for the country office team and in Mumbai for ECSA and India region staff.

My visit to Dakar was planned with an objective of supporting Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame (Asia- Africa Social Inclusion Advisor) in conducting a similar workshop in Dakar (Senegal), for the staff of West Africa (East and West) regions.

The three days workshop in Dakar from 17th to 19th May 2010 had about 50 participants from all departments including finance and admin of WARO East and West regions. It was organized as a part of WARO Regional Meeting. Though initially, Gertrude and I thought that the number of participants was a bit high and will be difficult to manage, to our surprise the workshop was one of the best and the most participative one which we had ever attended/conducted. It also gave me an opportunity to have a broader view of Sightsavers programmes on Social Inclusion across Africa through the discussion during the workshop.

Quoting Elizabeth Elhassan (Regional Director – WARO West ) and Benedict Hoefnegals (Regional Director – WARO East), this was one of the best regional meetings they have attended since joining Sightsavers, packed with vital learning which could be immediately linked and applied to programmes and practice.

The focus of the workshop was mainly on the twin track approach and on using the CBR matrix while planning the social inclusion programmes. Following are the action points drafted by the Regional Directors after the workshop.

Action Points:

- Country Office (CO) and Regional Office (RO) teams to review the Social Inclusion and Education sections of strategy papers to reflect learning from the training – alongside PITEC feedback on country / region strategy papers (CSP/ RSP).
- CO and RO teams to review their Project/Programme portfolio and align it with the strategic framework and Sightsavers programme approaches.
- CO and RO teams to review accompanying operational plans for Education and Social Inclusion areas of work, and submit to the regional office, Diane Mulligan & Gertrude for feedback, by the end of July. Note that all CSPs & Operational Plans should reflect the Twin – Track approach.

The visit to Senegal had also given me an opportunity to be nominated to the Guinness Book of World Records as the airlines missed my luggage during the onward as well as return journey. But it seems there are people who have missed it several times during their journey to Africa.
One learning, I would like to pass on to my colleagues who may travel to Africa is just carry one suitcase as hand baggage so that you have lesser chances of missing your checked in baggage.

Postcards from Kenya and Tanzania

By Shweta Chooramani
schooramani@sightsavers.org

Warm smiling faces welcome you on Jomo Kenyatta Airport, Nairobi. The airport is named after their first president, also known as the founder of Kenya. A smile can do wonders while you are in Africa !

Kenya Country Office (Nairobi) in the premises of Barclays House. The building was disabled friendly. Even inside the building requisite ramps and supports were installed.

The integrated education model of ECSA region. The entire model is delivered by the government schools. ECSA support resource rooms, braille library, assistive devices and training of school teachers. Sightsavers implement this project in partnership with Ministry of Education.I visited five government education facilities namely Menengai primary school, Nakuru boy’s high school, Kilimani primary school, Makalala primary school and Kisiwandui primary school.

The braille library at Kilimary Primary School, Nairobi supported by Sightsavers through their partner ABC (Africa Braille Centre). Incidentally, ABC and Sightsavers share same office building.

Resource room for visually impaired children at Kilimary Primary School, Nairobi supported by Sightsavers. The children coming to these government schools were from low socio economic background. Education in private schools were found to be very expensive in ECSA. The project was first piloted in few district of Kenya during 1990s, results were demonstrated to government and then scaled up through integration within the govt. education system, reaching close to 700 visually impaired children.

Resource centre for visually impaired children at Menengai Primary School, Nakuru district of Kenya. The district was primarily rural, still the resource room was utilized with presence of a range of teaching and learning materials. For advocacy purpose at policy level, a research study was undertaken by KCO on the cost allocation per visually impaired children in Kenya. The study suggested, the amount allocated by the government needs to increased from current level of USD 10 per child per year to USD 25.

Resource room for deaf blind children at Kilimani Primary School, supported by Sense International. The convergence of development agencies within the government facility to avoid duplication of resources is encouraged by Ministry of Education.

Children greeting with "namaste" at Makalala Primary School, Tanzania. Though in very rural and interior part of Mufindi district the enrolment of visually impaired children was encouraging. However, the subtle message on discrimination was conveyed due to disntictive uniform ( green sweaters for PWD). To my dismay, I was told that 'Albinism' is considered as a taboo and disability in rural parts of Tanzania. This goes to the extent of killing albino children as they were believed to bring curse to the family.

This is a picture of vision centre being run at Unguja at Zanzibaar. The medical team from Sightsavers supported Mnazi Mmoja Government Hospital organize camps while the facility was constructed by the community. Sightsavers and Ministry of Health jointly implement eyecare programmes which were primarily focussed on Trachoma and Onchocerciasis.

This picture was clicked while going through country side of Nakuru district. Making public buildings accessible was pushed by KCO as one of the advocacy agenda. A circular was sent to all the public buildings based on UNCRPD to make the facilities disabled friendly within one year, else their name would be printed in newspaper under "hall of shame" ! And guess what, it was working there !

CD has a collection of songs sung by PWD selected by Sigthsavers ECSA regional office. The music is called "Taarab" as its influenced from Arabic countries which ruled most parts of East Africa for trading slaves.

At the backside of Barclay's House, there was office of Kenya Institute for the Blind (KIB)supported by government for braille books production. While going back to hotel, seen these well dressed confident gentlemen waiting to cross the road, who speaks volume about the empowerment and employement of blind persons within BPOs/DPOs.

Presenting here Sylvester Sattu, the avid lover of Indian cuisine specially chicken makhanwala at Khana Khazana restaurant, Dar-Es-Salaaam. Bhajias and samosas were the first option for snacks available anywhere anytime.

Group of Masaai, ethnic tribe of Kenya and Tanzania. On weekend, me and Mary Muturi (Programme Officer - KCO) went to Nairobil National Park safari where the group danced with the visitors before parting away. The tourism industry in Kenya is the second largest source of foreign exchange revenue after agriculture.

Zanzibar also known as "spice isalnd" is famous for its serene beaches, international dhow festival, taarab music and UNESCO world heritage sight listed stone town.

One of most beautiful sight which I had come across while returning back to Nairobi from Dar-E-Salaam at the end of my trip. The marvelous sky view of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

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The Travel and Living channel keeps on flashing this quote by St. Augustine, could relate to it after the end of those three weeks !

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

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