Guests in attendance
Meeting Report
President Michelle Crawford welcomed everyone and made an Acknowledgement of County before acknowledging guests in attendance.
PDG Neville John as Chair asked the members to recognise the continuing works of Rotary International.
Guest Speaker
Annet Brouwer introduced Dr Vinay Nangia from the Suraj Eye Institute in Nagpur, central India. [Rotary Rotterdam connection] The institute was founded in 1993 and is run by a non-profit foundation – Om Drishti Trust.
Dr Vinay Nangia is an expert for the Global Burden of Diseases 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019, collaborator with the non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Consortium, Vision Loss Expert Group and Asian Eye Epidemiology Group, and was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of All India Ophthalmic Society for his contribution to Glaucoma in 2014.
Dr Nangia provided members with an insight to the magnitude of the eye-care challenges facing India’s population (by 2020 the number of blind people in India had increased in the prior 30 years from 5.4m to 7.5m, being home to over 20% of the world’s blind population) and presented a video of the history, guiding principles, achievements and services provided by the Institute.
The Suraj Eye Institute provides:
Clinical Patient Care:
Private patients
Community Eye Health
Sub-specialties including Glaucoma, Cataract, Retina, Paediatric Opthamology, Oculoplasty, and cornea
Institutional Activities:
With numbers of patients seen of 26,000 annually, almost 30% were diagnosed for free. With over 2700 surgeries per annum, 33% were performed for free and 22% subsidised.
The institute’s flagship program, Kidsight, was created in partnership with ORBIS which provides the largest global network of paediatric eye care. Together they developed an excellent paediatric eye care center and sustained a program to provide sight through specialised paediatric surgery for hundreds of children from the most backward villages and districts in Vidharbha.
A key additional project is the Nagpur Million project. Nagpur is home to 450 slums, representing 50% of the population, with 1.2m unheard and unseen, bereft of the most basic eye care. The project reaches out 16 times a month to the dwellers, offering refraction, cataract surgery and glasses while also providing other health checks.
Chair Neville John thanked Dr Nangia for his presentation, and for the invaluable services that the Institute provides, relating to members Rotary Club of Melbourne’s initiative EndTrachoma, uniting Rotary clubs across Australia, to work towards eliminating trachoma by preventing the spread of infection that causes this avoidable blindness. During question time Dr Nangia outlined the succession plan and governance of the Institute and explained the sustainability of its funding strategy.
Member Announcements:
Rohan Williams reminded the group of the Paul Harris Breakfast at Savoy Hotel on 21st November, encouraging members to invite friends or donate items for the auction
Alan Seale spoke briefly about Rotary’s New Generations Service Exchange program (NGSE), encouraging ongoing support for this excellent program and thanking for having hosted Charlotte Hornauer from Germany.
Pres Michelle thanked Annet for having introduced Dr Nangia to the club and was pleased to advise members that all speaker slots had been filled for the remainder of 2023, while encouraging further ideas for speakers for 2024.
Michelle also advised that Campbell Chambers is unfortunately not in a position to take on the role of President for FY’25 and that Rhys Williams had been pleased to step in as President Elect.
Michelle also undertook to provide an updated schedule of key dates for the next 5 months to Feb’24 and debriefed members of the initial outcomes of last week’s Strategy meeting (further details to come).
The meeting closed at 6:30pm.
