Rotary Club of Cochin teamed up with label and designer Rouka by Sreejith Jeevan to raise awareness for their Project Nethra

Text: Namrata George   Images: Ensign Photos

The Rotary Club of Cochin had invited designer Sreejith Jeevan from the fashion brand Rouka to speak about ‘Fashion with Love’ as an example of how style can make some noise for change. This was a part of the Diwali celebration of the Rotary Club and it focused on their project for eye care and awareness called Project Nethra. Various aspects of the project were focused through the fashion show that was metaphoric of the work that is being carried out. It was an art/fashion presentation of clothes with the project in mind.

The decor

The entrance to the hall was decorated with metal stands that had fairy lights and leafy wines with paper-made birds hung in them adorning the walkway. There were circular stands of yellow and orange flowers strategically placed for the models to walk through in the interiors. The setting also had bird cages with all the birds outside the cage as a metaphor to create a community where no one is limited due to blindness. The colour palette consisted of rust, gold, and white.

Walking united

The event had nine volunteers from the club as models. They were from all age groups, sizes, colour, and community, depicting a symbol of how the project aims to reach as many people. From college-going girls to women in their 60s – they walked in the same way, their eyes not seeing the people around them and their faces not acknowledging the audience – without emotion and to the same tone of music, they walked right in the middle of the audience.

Gift of vision

The clothes were curated from ROUKA’s collections and put together in layered style as an idea for the multiple layers of work including awareness creation, treatment, and prevention that go into a project such as this. With a blend of various materials that came together, they wanted to signify how it was important for people of all kind to come together into a beautiful ensemble to be able to create results. The clothes had characteristic quirky details of ROUKA – motifs from the beautiful everyday scenes such as flowers, birds, postcards, and text – things that the gift of vision can bring to one’s life. The colours of the garments were black and white which was metaphoric of the dark and the light. The highlights were rust and red that spoke of alertness and action.

Lit up by gold

The focus of the makeup done by Priya Abhishek Joseph was to literally ‘throw light on the eyes’ with gold. The models faces were painted with a metallic gold paint and contoured with bronze and some were given darks lips while the others were given rose gold glitter lips. Gold was used as an accent to bring in the element of light and its meaning in the context of vision also seemed apt to the Diwali celebrations conducted by the club.

The show was held in a dark room with just one spotlight that followed each model as they entered the room. They wanted to focus on the idea that this project will aim to find and throw light on people who are afflicted with blindness.

Project Nethra

The gift of vision is truly priceless. The importance merited to eye care cannot be stressed enough. In this regard the Rotary Club of Cochin in association with the SSM Eye Research Foundation seeks to start a Mobile Eye clinic (Mobile Tele-Ophthalmology Clinic) to screen needy patients in far-flung areas and provide them with advisory, rehabilitative assistance. The SSM Eye Research Foundation is a registered Charitable Trust formed to undertake community centric activities such as

a) Free Cataract Surgery to patients under the poverty line

b) School Screening Programmes

c) Conduct Diabetic Retinopathy Awareness and Screening camps to prevent avoidable blindness

d) Provide rehabilitation to the Visually handicapped.

The trust has conducted over 600 camps in the past 10 years. The Rotary Club of Cochin has been providing free Eye camps in its premises the Rotary Balbhavan for the past 4 years in association with the SSM Foundation. The Rotary Club of Cochin has also been associated with the SSM Foundation for more than 10 years in conducting many medical camps in rural areas to serve the weaker sections of the society. Kerala is considered the diabetes capital of the country. There is a high prevalence of Diabetes amongst the target population viz. the poorer and economically backward members of society , particularly in the rural areas. Diabetic Retinopathy continues to be one of the leading causes of blindness despite highly effective treatments. Patients suffering from Diabetes Mellitus are often unaware that the disease can affect their eyes. Diabetes affects the tiny blood vessels of eye and if they become blocked or leak then the retina and possibly vision will be affected. The extent of Diabetic Retinopathy was found to be more than 20% when over 500 Diabetes Patients were screened. Kerala is the Diabetes capital of India with a prevalence of over 20%, double the national average of 8%. The aim of this project is to increase the awareness of eye complications resulting from Diabetes and thereby prevent some of the blinding complications of the disease. Access to affordable yet modern eye care in rural areas is the need gap that this project aims to fill.

Through early detection of Diabetic Retinopathy, Glaucoma and Cataract we can provide the gift of sight by treating avoidable blindness. The primary need that the project is going to address is accessibility of comprehensive eye care to the economically and socially underserved with focus on geographically isolated and challenging areas in the state of Kerala by launching a mobile tele-ophthalmology unit Challenges for community ophthalmic care

• Lack of knowledge, attitude and practice
• Rural and geographically isolated areas (Villages and islands)
• Community and cultural barriers (Tribal areas, cultural variations and religious barriers especially for women)
• Accessibility of services Community ophthalmic care can be encompassed into six working strata namely

1. Identify the target population.
2. Screening
3. Clinical diagnosis.
4. Preliminary Investigations.
5. Medical / Surgical Management.
6. Awareness creation. The conventional screening programs like camps and mass awareness programs cover only 2 or 3 levels of the strata. Mobile Tele-ophthalmology project aims at delivering at least five levels of care at the first point of contact with the target population at their own geographical limits. Patients who requires further specialised care will be referred to the base hospital where they will be given subsidised medical or surgical care.