Tej Kohli Foundation arranged Free Health Check up for Poor Kids
Tej kohli Foundation team up with doctors and NGO and organised free dental, eye checkup with sports events for underprivileged children at Agamya School, Vasant Kunj Delhi on 18-Feb-2011.
- (1888PressRelease) March 01, 2011 - As many as 125 children being taken care of by a non-governmental organisation in Delhi's Vasant Kunj area for destitute and under-privileged children, had a rare treat last Friday when doctors and volunteers of the Tej Kohli Foundation organised a camp for them at which they were given medical check-ups and treated to food, fun and games. This NGO is also home to 75 abandoned old age citizens as well some homeless and deprived women, who also benefited from the camp. The event was organised at Agamya, supported by the Earth Saviours Foundation.
The Tej Kohli Foundation, a philanthropic organisation set up by Costa Rica-based and Delhi-born entrepreneur Tej Kohli, had organised the event as part of its "Food for Brood Programme". Among other things, the Foundation runs a successful corneal transplant programme with the help of the Niramaya Eye Bank Trust in Gurgaon.
A team of doctors from the Ahooja Eye and Dental Clinic in Gurgaon, which is associated with Tej Kohli Foundation, conducted an eye and dental health camp at this event and for the inmates of the old age home. The team was led by Dr Hitendra Ahooja, a renowned opthalmalogist.
The doctors tested the eyes of all the children and prescribed and gifted glasses for those who needed them. Cases which required more treatment were referred to the hospital. Similarly, all the children underwent check-ups for dental health, too.
Volunteers of the foundation also helped organise games and other fun events such as frog race, lemon and spoon race, jumps and musical events, creating a rare atmosphere of joy and excitement at the camp.
Mr Rajiv Pradhan, foundation head in India of the Tej Kohli Foundation said the organisation was working on, among other things, popularising eye donations so that vision could be restored to as many blind people as possible.
The foundation had launched its ambitious corneal transplant programme in June last year in partnership with the Niramaya Trust.
The cost of the corneal transplant surgery is borne entirely by the Tej Kohli Foundation. The programme has already assisted more than 100 patients from Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to undergo corneal transplants.
"Our aim is to reach out far and wide and spread the message of the good cause of donating eyes which could tranform the lives of blind people who are facing
hardships and challenges on a daily basis. The gift of a vision could change the life and world of a blind man," said Mr. Rajiv Pradhan.
Mr Pradhan said the Foundation hoped to extend the programme to more areas in the country gradually.
"We need to fill the eye banks with more corneas. Compared to the number of deaths in India every day, the number of eye donations is very low. We need to
approach the issue holistically and take the cause up on a larger and broader platform at the national level," Mr Pradhan said.
Pointing out the media had a big role to play in popularising the idea of eye donations, Mr Pradhan said the Tej Kohli Foundation planned to organise more such events, involving all sections of society, including celebrities.
The Tej Kohli Foundation decided to work with the Earth Saviours Foundation in view of the inspiring work being carried out by it.
Mr Ravi Kalra, the founder of Earth Saviours, said the organisation had taken shape some three years ago. Apart from children literally picked off the streets and put in the school, the organisation also looks after senior citizens who have been abandoned by their families and those who have nowhere to go. He is hoping to build an old-age home that can cater to about 2000 people as well as a home for deprived women and victims of rape.
Starting with just five children, Agamya today has 125 regular students who get basic education upto class five level, free of cost. The foundation also has rehabilitation programmes for the parents of these students and some of them are now doing semi-skilled jobs in the city.
With the help of 15 full-time employees and volunteers from India and abroad as well as interns from well-known colleges from Delhi and Gurgaon, Earth Saviours also works in several other areas including anti-noise campaigns and environment.
After the tie-up with the Tej Kohli Foundation, Mr Kalra is more upbeat, having been assured of assistance for meeting the medical needs of the children and inmates of the old-age home.
The sports events at the function were followed by a prize-giving ceremony and a sumptuous lunch hosted by the Tej Kohli Foundation.
Dr Ahooja also promised to provide all possible assistance for the children of Agamya.
"We are planning to do more such health check-up camps, maybe once or twice a month," Mr Pradhan said. "We are also looking at ways of collaborating with the
Earth Saviours Foundation on a long-term basis."
Mr Kalra said that the idea for "Agamya" came after volunteers of the NGO found large numbers of homeless and abandoned children without shelter.
"Mostly barefoot, they were either looking for food in stinking garbage or begging on the streets of Delhi in harsh climatic conditions with temperatures soaring above 46 degrees Celsius", he said.
He said that these children, totally unprotected, were often victims of molestation and got unknowingly involved in criminal activities, getting arrested in the bargain and ending up in juvenile prisons.
"It was painful to see that these children were not getting even a single meal a day. Their only means of survival was left-over food thrown out by food vendors," Mr Kalra said.
Mr Tej Kohli, 52, the founder of the Tej Kohli Foundation, is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). He has multiple interests across the globe in Costa Rica, India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other parts of the Gulf, and North and South America.
In 2010, the Foundation extended its activities to India, starting with the corneal transplant programme that is aimed at bringing light into the lives of thousands of blind people.
"Apart from the corneal transplant programme, the Tej Kohli Foundation will focus its attention on five other key areas in India: Education for under-privileged children,
Nutrition for poor children, Vocational training for people with disabilities, Rural health and Empowerment of women," Mr Pradhan added.
Source : http://www.tejkohlifoundation.com
###
space
space
Satisfied Users & 
Approved Press Releases
Print
Email
Report Spam