The ophthalmic institution passionately committed to providing physical and financial independence by bringing back the ‘light of vision’ into the life of the visually impaired especially the indigent, observed the nation’s 70th Independence Day with customary patriotic fervour and launching of a critical eye care initiative to benefit rural children. The day’s proceedings started with a warm welcome to the Chief Guest of the Day, Justice S.Jagadeesan and the distinguished dignitaries from ORBIS the institution’s partner in service for more than 2 decades by Dr.T.S.Surendran, vice-chairman of Sankara Nethralaya. He gave an interesting account of the legal giant’s brilliance in his field and his many achievements and had a high word of praise to the service partner with whom ORBIS Reach the new initiative targeted at screening children in Kanchipuram district was being launched, he underlined that the SN-ORBIS partnership had successfully trained 72 professionals comprising paediatric anaesthetists, nurses and optometrists.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Rahul, Ali, India Country Director, ORBIS gave an insight on its activities in Latin America, Africa and Asia, he recalled the advent of ORBIS in India via the enchanting hospital in the air. He stunned the audience with the startling revelation that a child was going blind in some part of the globe every minute and underlined that it was the primary responsibility of every ophthalmologist to ensure the eye health of children to fulfil their ‘Right to Education’ he had a high word of praise for the Qatar Development Fund, the funding agency of the project being launched, which through the ‘Qatar Creating Vision’ project supported cost free eye camps across the world. He explained that ORBIS-Reach project being launched would not only be involved in correcting refractive errors but pave way for better medical management for children with complications in their vision. The India Country Director, ORBIS finished his interesting talk with a high word of praise for the Sankara Nethralaya-ORBIS team for developing a project on ‘Indian preferred Practice Pattern’ for paediatric ophthalmology and competency based assessment rubrics applied to multiple cadres at Sankara Nethralaya and his dream of a world where no child will go needlessly blind.

Delivering the Chief Guest’s address Chief Justice S.Jagadeesan expressed his anguish that ‘Freedom’ and ‘Liberty’ secured at great sacrifice by the freedom fighters and national leaders was being interpreted as  being self centred, intolerant and impatient, he added that we have failed to imbibe the qualities of great leaders like Bhagat Singh, Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Kappal ottiya Thamizhan VOC Chidambaranar and Thiruppur Kumaran, he rued that negative factors like population explosion, terrorism and unemployment have also grown along with the nation’s growth in positive areas and fervently appealed to own responsibility as citizens for a better society and better human welfare. The chief guest hailed Sankara Nethralaya for fostering integration among its employees to extend better patient care, hospitality and exemplary coordination to achieve its global position.

The momentous occasion ended with the distribution of meritorious, annual performance awards for employees and departments of Sankara Nethralaya by the Chief Guest.