Helen Keller Remembrance Day was marked in the city with several awards being given to ophthalmologists, institutions and social workers working in the area of vision care.
Sujatha Mohan, a specialist in cornea and refractive surgery, and the executive medical director, Rajan Eye Care Hospital, was given the ‘Dr. G. Sitalakshmi Gift of Sight’ Award by the Lions Club of Central Madras on Thursday. Dr. Mohan was honoured at an event at Sankara Nethralaya, by the Club. The awards were given away by Chitra Venkataraman, former judge of Madras High Court.
The Lions Club of Central Madras, its members said, focuses specially on sight conservation and working with visually impaired persons. ‘Sight First’ projects have been instituted by the club and are in their 18th year, and conquering avoidable blindness is one of its aims.
The award given to Dr. Sujatha Mohan is named after Dr. Sitalakshmi, a pillar of the cornea department of Sankara Nethralaya, said one of its doctors. Dr. Sujatha Mohan said she was overwhelmed by the award and remembered all of her mentors and teachers at Sankara Nethralya.
The ‘I (EYE) Care’ Award went to Udayagiri Lions Hospital, Udgir, Latur district in Maharashtra, which has completed 1,20,000 cataract surgeries and hundreds of screening camps since its inauguration in 2005. The ‘Knight of the Blind’ Award went to Jyoti Deepak Somwanshi, chief ophthalmologist at Udayagiri Lions Eye Hospital.
A legal software that converts voice to text was also given away on the occasion. S.S. Badrinath, chairman emeritus of Sankara Nethralaya, M. Ravishankar, president of the Club, S.N. Harinarayanan, chairman - projects of the club and others participated.