Welcome to Child Eye Care Charitable Trust [CECCT]

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October 9th 2010 - World Sight Day 2010 - Eyes on the Future - fighting vision impairment in later life.

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Our Vision

To develop a comprehensive eye care program with community development interventions in urban slums and rural areas to improve the quality of life and give the gift of sight to all.

Our Mission

To promote eye health and control avoidable blindness in the entire community through comprehensive health care which will lead to community development and a self reliant sustainable program.

Our Goal

To control and prevent avoidable blindness and to provide treatment and rehabilitation facilities to those who have lost vision and give the gift of sight to all children and adults.

Success Stories

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STORY 1

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STORY - 1 (Purungudi and Kirtana)

Purungudi, a young mother from the slum community of Valnai, Orlem, used to always worry about the health of her 4 year old daughter Kirtana. Purungudi and her husband had migrated from the southern state of Tamilnadu to Mumbai a year back and were presently living in the slum of Valnai. Purungudi worked as a house maid in the neighbouring elite society while her husband worked as a food vendor to make ends meet. Meanwhile Kirtana, their daughter, started suffering from repeated bouts of diarrhoea and rapidly lost weight over a period of few months. Child Eyecare Charitable Trust, a non-governmental organization working for community development and comprehensive eye care has been operational in the community of Valnai since 2006.
	Purungudi - a young mother
The community health workers (CHW’s) of Child Eye Care visit the slum community conducting door to door surveys and try to reach children, mothers and families in need of special care. When Kirtana was first weighed by a CHW at a ‘growth monitoring session’, she was found to be underweight for her age, having Grade II malnutrition. Since the child was also having a diarrhoeal episode at that time, the CHW motivated Purungudi to keep feeding her fluids to prevent dehydration. She was also explained about how to prepare oral rehydration solution (ORS) at home. Kirtana was then registered in the Nutritional Rehabilitation Center (NRC) of Valnai. Here Kirtana received nutritious meals once a day specially prepared for children like her who were suffering from various grades of malnutrition. Slowly and steadily, Kirtana started gaining weight and became the happy and healthy baby that she once was. But she was still suffering from repeated episodes of diarrhoea and hence the expenditure of the family on health care was still high.
The supervisor at Valnai, tried to talk to Purungudi and understand her problems. Since Purungudi could speak only Tamil and a smattering of Hindi, language was a major barrier. Gradually with the help of gestures and words the Child Eye Care team at Valnai motivated Purungudi to attend their community education programs. These programs comprised of health and nutrition education conveyed through health talks, poster presentations, cooking demonstrations, etc. They also tried to emphasize the importance of personal hygiene such as hand washing and its effects on health.
	Supervisor (L) talking to Purungudi

The demonstrations on cooking nutritious meals and homemade ORS were especially useful for Purungudi and it reflected in the way she prepared meals for the family. Lessons on personal hygiene led to Kirtana washing her hands before having meals and after defecation, hence reducing her episodes of illness. Kirtana now does not suffer from repeated episodes of diarrhoea and has gained weight adequately. The family thus does not have to spend their hard earned money on antibiotics for Kirtana. Thanks to the guidance and mentoring of the team at the community center, Purungudi is now a happy mother with fewer worries and more smiles!
	A happier Purungudi