Give the Gift of Sight to the poor in India

Visiting the Orbit Clinic at Aravind Eye Hospital is a confusing, emotional experience.  I have visited several times, and I can think of no other way to describe it.  On one hand, I am so sad to see our youngest patients, hooked up to IV's receiving chemotherapy, when they should be outside playing.  At the same time, it is a hopeful place, because these kids are being treated by Dr. Usha and her caring, experienced team.  They are arguably receiving the best treatment in India, probably the world!

Each year, Aravind Eye Hospital treats roughly 150 new patients for retinoblastoma (eye cancer), in addition to 400 to 500 follow-up visits.  The overwhelming majority are children under the age of five years.  The sooner we see them, the better chance we have of saving their sight and their lives.  Now that our Genetic Testing Lab is in up and running, we can predict whether a baby is likely to be born with retinoblastoma and start treatment immediately.  

Sometimes the biggest obstacle to early treatment is fear -- no parent wants to hear that their child has cancer and may lose her eye.  Chella from Andhra Pradesh was just two years old when she first came to Aravind with tumors in both eyes.   When the doctor suggested enucleation of one eye, the parents refused and took Chella home.  Many hospitals would have given up.  But Aravind’s team continued to follow up with the family, and as a result of repeated calls, Chella was brought back to the hospital for surgery and chemotherapy.  Now three years old, the tumor in her other eye has regressed, and she has a custom-fitted prosthetic eye, which will be replaced as she grows.   

None of this would have been possible without the generosity of our Global Giving donors.  Chella's father works as a daily wage labourer and earns about $2 a day.  The treatment expenses were far beyond their means.  Your donations will continue to support her follow-up visits for five years -- after that, she will be declared cancer-free! 

Thank you for helping to save Chella's sight and life.  

Every day the doctors and nurses in Aravind's Orbit Clinic for Cancer deal with some of the most challenging cases at our hospitals.  The majority of their patients are under the age of five, and they are all suffering from sight and life-threatening cancers.  I've visited the clinic several times, and I always come away humbled (to say the least) and doubly grateful to our donors, who make it all possible. I'll give you an example:  

Ahalya and her twin sister came to Aravind from their village in Kerala, India, when they were just two years old. Ahalya was diagnosed with retinoblastoma (eye cancer) in both eyes, and Aravind doctors had to remove one eye and fit her with a prosthesis.  On the same visit, the family was tested at Aravind's Genetic Testing Lab, where we found that Ahalya and her mother had the inherited form of this disease.

When Ahalya’s baby sister Avanthika was born, her parents brought her in for testing immediately.  Because of early diagnosis, we started treatment right away and saved her vision and her life. Avanthika is now four years old and cancer-free.  Both sisters will continue to come to Aravind for follow up visits to make sure the cancer doesn't reappear.  Their treatment and follow-up visits are completely covered by your donations.  

Each year in India, more than 1500 children between the ages of 0 and 5 years are diagnosed with retinoblastoma -- 90% of those children will lose not only their sight, but their lives.  Why?  They come to the doctor too late -- the cancer has spread and there's not much we can do.  Or, they think they can't afford treatment whch costs over $1000 per patient.

Which is why your gift is so important to us.  With your help, Aravind has saved the sight and lives of 452 children and provided more than 4000 patients visits.  

From all of us at Aravind, thank you!  

With gratitude,  

Donna Campbell, Executive Director

P.S. Please email me, if you would like to more about our program: donnacampbell@aravind.org.  I would be so happy to hear from you.  And, if you like what we do and want to spread the word, you can share this video with your friends.