Dear All, Greetings from the National Eyeway Helpdesk Please, follow below the Daily Eyeway Alerts: 1. News- Maharashtra: Causes of visual impairment in children changing, says study. A statewide study conducted in schools for visually impaired has revealed that causes of childhood blindness are changing as society makes socio-economic progress. The study was conducted by a team from H V Desai Eye Hospital’s team, said Dr Sucheta Kulkarni, principal investigator. The hospital will hold a meeting on February 18 to discuss the findings of the research, sources said. The findings are likely to influence government policies on eyecare funding for children, sources added. Col M Deshpande (chief medical director), H V Desai Eye Hospital, said, “It is an established fact that causes of blindness in children are proxy indicators of a country’s health system and economic progress. For example, unavoidable causes (such as blindness due to brain hypoxia) is common in western countries, while Vitamin A deficiency-related blindness is common in African countries.” As many as 2,000 children enrolled in schools for visually impaired across Maharashtra were examined for the study in 2019. It found that whole globe anomaly (ill developed eye at birth) is the major cause of blindness (47 per cent) followed by corneal and retinal causes (15 per cent each) and cataract (7 per cent). Visual impairment in every third child (32 per cent of children) was caused due to something that was preventable or could be treated. Comparison of these findings with a previous similar study conducted by H V Desai Hospital 15 years ago showed that blindness due to Vitamin A deficiency was on the slide. This indicates the success of the government’s Vitamin A supplementation programme for pregnant mothers and children, but implies that the government needs to now tackle blindness due to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), which is seen in premature babies, sources said. There is a need to train more doctors to manage cataract and ROP in children and also to procure highly specialised equipment to manage these diseases, experts said. Source: http://www.eyeway.org/?q=maharashtra-causes-visual-impairment-children-changing-says-study A call out for volunteers. From experience I can say there are many people who do not know that they can volunteer to make the life of the visually challenged better,” says Barath S N, the founder of Chennai-based Lit the Light, a group formed four years ago to help visually impaired students across Tamil Nadu. The NGO is organising the year’s first ‘Read Fest’ in temple town to sensitise more people to reading and scribing for the visually challenged. Read Fest – 2020 is planned like an exclusive reading campaign that will give an opportunity to first time volunteers to come together in support of all those who cannot see. “It will be an experiential programme for people who do not have exposure about the struggles of the visually challenged and are not aware how they can contribute,” says Barath. The event will be held with 150 high school students of Indian Association for the Blind at Sundarajanpatty. The students will sit in a one-to-one reading session with the walk-in volunteers, who will read out portions from prescribed text books. “Both the volunteer and the student will gain from each other, the former will get an insight into the world of darkness and understand the need and importance of voluntary service and the students will have the benefit of learning and perhaps find a new friend too,” says Barath, who had conducted the first Read Fest in Chennai in 2018. The day long event there saw the participation of 1500 volunteers. He hopes the Madurai event too will see a good footfall and help to increase the band of volunteers. He says the visually-impaired children study in Braille until the eighth standard. In later years, they require the help of others to read and then scribe for them in exams. For the last four years, his organisation has been sending out volunteers all over Tamil Nadu to help. Source: https://www.thehindu.com/society/if-you-have-the-time-to-spare-and-would-like-to-help-the-visually-challenged-join-lit-the-lights-read-fest-2020/article30828428.ece 2. Job- One post as Technician B and one post as Catering Attendant-A for Visualy Impaired in Government of India, Department of Space Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) , Bengaluru. Qualifications: (i) Technician B: SLC/SSC/Matriculation + ITI/NTC/NAC in Electronics-Mechanic / Technician Power Electronic Systems / Mechanic Consumer Electronic Appliances / Mechanic Industrial Electronics trade from NCVT. AgeLimit: 18-35 years(ii) Catering Attendant-A: SSLC/SSC Pass or its equivalent. Age Limit: 18-26 years. The application for on-line registration will be hosted in the ISRO web-site www.isro.gov.in during the period from 15.02.2020 to 06.03.2020 . Candidates may visit our website to register their applications on-line between February 15, 2020 and March 06, 2020. Applications will be received through on-line only. Upon registration, applicants will be provided with an on-line Registration Number, which should be carefully preserved for future reference. The posts are temporary, but likely to continue indefinitely. The posts are temporary, but likely to continue indefinitely. For complete details: https://apps.isac.gov.in/TA-2020/advt.jsp. More at http://www.eyeway.org/?q=technician-b-indian-space-research-organisation --
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