The Madras Round Table -1 and its illustrious member Shri Arvind Swami are no new faces to the Sankara Nethralaya family, the service organization and its large hearted member have been old friends of the institution and have been consistently supporting its cause for many years. The Madras Round Table -1 celebrated its 55th glorious years of service by sponsoring 55 Cataract surgeries in year 2012. Shri Arvind Swami and Shri Manu Wassan, Chairman Madras Round Table 1 accompanied by a few Tablers visited Sankara Nethralaya on the 5th of March 2014 and made a generous donation towards performing Cataract surgeries in the Mobile Eye Surgical Unit (MESU). Speaking on the occasion Shri Arvind Swami had a high word of praise for Sankara Nethralaya’s pioneering and innovative initiative of taking high quality eye care right to the door steps of the poor and indigent patients living in remote areas, patients who cannot afford to make a trip to a base hospital. He reminisced his carefree visits to Sankara Nethralaya straight from school and time spent at the open space where the imposing research center stands now. He expressed that it was a pleasure and privilege to be of service to an institution in whose inception his late Father Shri VD.Swami played a major role. Shri Swami closed his talk with an assurance that the Madras Round Table 1 would endeavour to sponsor an outdoor eye camp every year. Speaking on the occasion Shri Manu Wassan observed that it was an honour to share the dais with Dr SS.Badrinath and added that the amount being donated by the Madras Round Table 1 would go towards sponsoring the cost of conducting 90 surgeries to be performed over a week.
The Mobile Eye Surgical unit, jointly developed by Sankara Nethralaya and IIT-Madras, has conducted over 800 surgeries since December 14, 2011. The camp sponsored by the MRT-1 will be held at Alangayam village in Vellore district between April 1 and June 23, 2014.