Suresh Shah
CHICAGO: The Bhartiya Senior Citizens of Chicago (BSC) organized a program at Bloomington, a Chicago suburb, to highlight the issue of blindness in India and pitch BSC members and supporters to help the blind in India. There were around 600 people in attendance.
Dr. Manu Vora, President of Blind Foundation for India (BFI) highlighted the plight of over 15 million blind people in India which translates to one out of every three in the world. He also shared exponential power of prevention such as $1 of Vitamin A drops administered from age 4-6, prevents the child from going blind. Also, in India it costs only $20 per cataract operation, compared to $4,000 in the US, He also gave update on the 2017 donation of a Medical Mobile Van by BSC to R. M. Eye Hospital in Chikhodra (near Anand) in Gujarat.
There was an outpouring of support to BFI resulting in a generous collection of $20,000 during the Program towards donation of another Medical Mobile Van in India. After the BFI presentation, Dr. Jagdish Trivedi captivated the audience with his wonderful Gujarati jokes.
Members of the Executive Committee managed the August 2018 program and worked hard for its success. A delicious dinner was enjoyed by all the attendees at the end.
