Parveen Kumar-
Parveen Kumar is a member of the Bihar Foundation USA who worked in Bihar on the ‘Adopt a Village’ mission.
On the day the Bihar Foundation USA launched the inspiring initiative called ‘Adopt a Village’, I saw an opportunity to fulfill my longtime dream to do a little for my village and be a means to fight the menace of blindness.
In Jan 2019, I reached my village Govindpur, a small town in Nawada district of Bihar state, with my wife. The eye camp was organized in the premises of the Govindpur Government Middle School with the help of the current school headmaster, Mr Alakhdev Yadav, and the local coordinator, Nitish Kumar.
People from nearby villages started gathering from the wee hours of the day. The Sai Netralaya medical team, the co-partner from India in this mission, reached the camp site by 9 AM. Almost 500 people were already lined up.
As men and women got examined, many getting their lenses and others getting shortlisted for cataract surgery, a sense of gratitude could be seen easily on their faces.
By 6 PM the same day, 500 patients got their first checkup done and 250 of them were taken to Patna for free cataract surgery, with free food and free stay in the hospital.
People were overwhelmed with emotion for the help they were receiving for the most needed part of the body/life, the eye. Many government officials visited the site and promised to extend support as needed.
Next year, I had a second chance to execute another camp and another 450 people got their eye examination done, while 125 got their cataract surgery done with the collaboration of Sai Netralaya, who demonstrated the attitude of service to every patient, which not only treated their eye but also healed their heart.
This was an event that filled our hearts with joy, the joy that can only be experienced by giving back. And what can be better than to give a ray of light to the neediest people of our society?
