They are two diseases with two different parasites. So for decades, river blindness and lymphatic filariasis have been combatted separately, through different treatment campaigns and by different health organizations and initiatives.
There often seems to be a misconception that the only thing blind people do is…be blind.
They don’t just sit at home decked out their blind garb, hovelled up their pyjamas and dropping curry down their shirts.
It is detrimental to their overall identity to assume that if a vision-impaired person says he is going to work, they must be going to the Royal National Institute for the Blind [RNIB] or the Center for the Blind.
People with varying capabilities of sight are able to lead lives that don’t revolve around blindness.
For the last three years, 52-year-old Taradevi from Hansi (in Haryana’s Hisar district) has been suffering from severe visual impairment due to cataracts.
Her husband is physically challenged, so it is her eldest son who takes care of her when he is not working as a milkman. The family lives in a tiny brick hut, with their three cows stationed in the small courtyard outside.
Rahul Bajaj looks at his blindness as an asset and not a liability. His determination brought rich dividends as he emerged from his hometown in Nagpur to become a lawyer. Working in Delhi now, the 23-year-old is not only living his dream but is all set to travel to Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship.
The government, on World Diabetes Day, has announced new initiatives to streamline the management of non-communicable diseases in the State.
The old lady is smiling broadly, although one eye is bandaged. She’s excited about going home.
“I work every day, weeding fields and picking fruits. I must be able to see to keep working. I was so worried that I would fall after sunset because my vision was bad. At the eye camp, the doctor said I had a matured cataract, and then brought me to Madurai, to the main hospital,” she says.
“If it were not free, I would have never been able to afford the operation!”
The old lady is smiling broadly, although one eye is bandaged. She’s excited about going home.
“I work every day, weeding fields and picking fruits. I must be able to see to keep working. I was so worried that I would fall after sunset because my vision was bad. At the eye camp, the doctor said I had a matured cataract, and then brought me to Madurai, to the main hospital,” she says.
“If it were not free, I would have never been able to afford the operation!”
InshaMushtaq, the teenage girl completely blinded by pellets fired by government forces during the 2016 uprising in Kashmir, is currently taking her class 10 examination, asserting that she would not give in to her disability and is determined to continue her studies.
On 18th of this month, Insha walked out of her house to write the fourth paper of her board examination. She was accompanied by her cousins.
“They come with me to the exam center where my helper waits for me,” said Insha.
The ban on hawkers near railway stations has hit at least 1,000 families whose their bread winner is visually impaired.
There are at least 1,000 blind hawkers who sell either stationery or daily needs to commuters. There are some blind hawkers who sit at railway bridges and sell folders, card holders and other items including nail cutters, chains with locks and also key-chains.
BILOXI, Miss. — Keith Bynum, a blind Army veteran, lives by this rule: Life is not over just because you can’t see.
“You’ve got to have a positive mind to keep yourself going,” said the 55-year-old.
Bynum is one of 18 veterans at the Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System’s Blind Rehab Center in Biloxi. The facility opened in 2011 and has served 173 veterans in those six years.
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