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PATIENT SUPPORT SERVICES - SERVING WITH DIGNITY
Aravind is internationally renowned for its self-sustaining model of compassionate care – no one is turned away on the basis of ability to pay. Through its patient support programs, the Aravind Eye Foundation provides assistance to those who need extensive and long-term treatment and provides food to patients and their families who must travel many miles to reach an Aravind hospital.
Ring of Hope
Established in 2004, the Ring of Hope helps patients, most often children, who have life- threatening cancers like retinoblastoma. Retinoblastoma is the most common cancer of the eye among children and is responsible for over five percent of the blindness among children in India. With a rate of incidence of one in 15,000 infants, India has one of the largest numbers of retinoblastoma patients in the world. If left untreated, the disease can cause permanent blindness and death.
If diagnosed and treated early, children with retinoblastoma have an excellent prognosis. But the treatment is complicated, involving surgery, radiation treatment and multiple cycles of chemotherapy and blood replacement – treatment which is too expensive for most Indian families. Aravind doctors volunteer their time, but we need your help to pay specialists and provide blood replacement and medication. To learn more about the Ring of Hope, click here.
Youth Vision
Today in the rural parts of southern India, only 7% to 8% of the children who haverefractive vision problems, such as near or farsightedness, useeye glasses. Aravind’s Vision Centers conduct school screenings and perform vision check-ups in schools for free, but a pair of eyeglassescosts roughly five dollars. Your small donation for eye glasses can help these children excel in school and arrest refractive errors at an early stage.
Food for Sight
At Aravind’s free hospitals, over 8,000 to 10,000 patients undergo cataract operations every month. The surgery, medicines and accommodation are provided free of cost. But most of the patients struggle to afford their food expense during their three-day stay in the hospital. For as little as ten dollars, you can pay the travel and food for two patients for their entire stay.
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