SUMMARY: "Providing Eyeglasses is one of the most cost effective ways of addressing poverty."
An extremely dedicated Niskayuna Rotarian, Dr. Anshu Chandra, operates an eye clinic in HAITI. She & her staff all work for FREE!. She needs help to construct a new earthquake-proof building.
For more info: globaleyeproject.org or Lon 518-312-6588
CLICK THIS PHOTO for a 3-MINUTE VIDEO of ANSHU TELLING HER STORY:
NISKAYUNA ROTARY's STORY ABOUT MEETING ANSHU
EVERY NOW & THEN WE MEET SOMEONE SO SELF-SACRIFICING,
WE CAN’T HELP BUT SUPPORT THEM.
Picture this. A new graduate, the daughter of immigrants from India, is now a certified eye doctor. She is ready for the good life. A car. Maybe an apartment in NYC. But before she accepts one of her job offers, she is persuaded to go on a mission trip to a remote area in Asia. When it was time to leave, she knew that eyecare there would simply stop. So instead of accepting work in the USA, where eye care would never stop, she went on a dozen or so mission trips.. She traveled to Nepal, Peru, Lebanon, Tanzania, Honduras, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Indonesia, India and Haiti with other doctors associated with The Bay Eye Charitable Foundation (globaleyeproject.org). She lamented at the living conditions in all of these other-world places. “But how could this exist in Haiti, such a short distance from home?” So, she relocated to Haiti in 2015, and created an essentially-free eye clinic.
Her name is Dr. Anshu Chandra. She is a wisp of a girl. She eats like a bird. She doesn’t buy clothes. She doesn’t buy makeup. When she is back in the USA visiting her family, she gets as many part time jobs as she can. Everything she earns gets poured back into help pay the $50,000 annual operating expenses for the clinic she creates in Haiti. Patients come from miles around. The clinic serves 100 patients a day! Eyecare is free, except eyeglasses are $2, for those who can afford it. The eyeglasses are gifted by the Lions Clubs.
“PROVIDING EYEGLASSES IS ONE OF THE MOST COST EFFECTIVE WAYS OF ADDRESSING POVERTY.”
- Niskayuna Rotarian Dr. Robert “Rob” Fox.
Dr. Anshu Chandra's clinic is located in the basement of a hospital. Here, she trained locals to become eye professionals, providing eye exams, and identifying eye diseases.. Dr. Chandra’s clinic performs cataract surgeries, preventing blindness. But her team also prevents blindness in premature babies. Her staff inspects the eyes of premature babies to identify the babies who, without treatment, would be destined for a life of blindness. These local eyecare professionals are all male, because, sadly, the females failed to see themselves in anything but traditional roles. Out of necessity, the entire staff works for no pay. But she does provide her workers with lunch. One day she discovered that they were taking their lunches home, to feed their families.
SAFE LOCATION: Yes, the armed gangs are burning tires in the streets and shooting at airplanes in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. But life goes on in much of the rest of Haiti. Better still, Dr. Chandra’s clinic is located in Fond-des-Blancs, a remote mountainous area with only one access road. The police, who have family to protect, prevent any trouble makers from entering.
CURRENT DILEMMA. The Hospital where the clinic is housed needs the space, so the clinic needs to move out. There are no other suitable structures, so a new one needs to be built. The cost is $300,000. It may sound like a lot, but it is a price for an average home in America. Plus, the architects are designing a space to be earthquake and hurricane proof. The first 10% has been raised, which was enough to purchase the land.
HOW WE MET: We met Dr. Chandra twice – both times by accident. The first time was when she was picking up $10 refurbished laptops from ComputerRehab.org. We told Dr. Chandra how Niskayuna Rotarians filled our laptops with K-12 educational software and provided them to classrooms and to students who lacked Internet access. Dr. Chandra wanted to educate the school children who played around her clinic. But it needed to be in French. So, the son of Niskayuna Rotarian Elizabeth Zahdan downloaded French educational materials onto Dr. Chandra’s laptops. Free downloadable educational materials can be found in dozens of languages at LearningEquality.org. [By the way, Elizabeth’s son made the newspapers when he graduated with a Masters degree at age 19!]
The second time we met Dr. Chandra was years later, when Rotarians Helen and Lon Penna were attending a presentation on Polio hosted by the Rotterdam-Sunrise Rotary Club. At the meeting, a woman asked if we knew of any way to ship materials to Haiti, now that Port-au- Prince was in the hands of armed gangs. So, we reached out to our long-ago friend Dr. Chandra, and yes, she arranges for the safe passage for shipping containers filled with equipment and eyeglasses to enter Haiti. And yes, we can add humanitarian supplies, like MoonCatcher Kits, onto her shipment.
HOW YOUR CLUB, or ORGANIZATION, CAN TAKE ACTION:
1. DONATE TIME TO HELP FINISH THE FUNDRAISING.
Consider visiting the local Lion’s Club. Or forwarding this story to them. After all, this is the signature project of all Lions Clubs, and it is their eyeglass donations that have made this project possible so far.
Reach out to people you know from Haiti. Or find them on the Internet.
Reach out to any organization who was serving Haiti before the gangs took over. They might be interested in knowing there is still a way where they can help the people of Haiti.
Host a Fundraiser for Haiti
Create an online campaign, like Go Fund Me.
2. REACH OUT TO THE “BLINDNESS PREVENTION ROTARY ACTION GROUP” (BPRAG).
3. SHARE THE STORY
Tell the story in print or on social media.
4. SCHEDULE A SPEAKER
Niskayuna Rotary would be glad to arrange for a speaker for your club or organization over Zoom.
