Monday, October 29, 2012

Giving Campaign 2012: MSIDC sets its sight on eye health

Giving Campaign 2012: MSIDC sets its sight on eye health
Microsoft India Development Center is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Microsoft’s Giving Campaign with a special focus on eye health. As part of this new initiative which is closely aligned to India Vision 2020, Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC) has partnered with two leading eye health institutes - Sankara Eye Care Institutions in Bangalore and LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in Hyderabad— and is jointly conducting various initiatives to promote awareness around eye health and garner support for their activities. “India has an estimated 8 million blind people and 55 million people with low vision. Vision impairment has long term adverse consequences on a person’s education, employment, mobility, socialization and mental health. Since the year 2000, MSIDC employees have embraced Microsoft’s global culture of Giving by supporting various social causes they are passionate about. This year, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this great tradition, we decided to take up a special initiative, and the focus on eye health resonated very well with us,” said Srinivas Prasad, HR Director. Explaining the choice of partner NGOs, Prasad said: “We decided on Sankara Eye Care Institutions and LV Prasad Eye Institute given the great work they have already done to treat visual impairment and the prevention of blindness. Throughout Giving Campaign 2012 (Oct 1-Nov 9) our employees are participating in various activities under the guidance of these partners to promote awareness and also contribute funds for specific projects.” On October 19, some MSIDC Hyderabad employees dedicated their Day of Caring activities to promote this special cause. After undergoing some training from LVPEI, the volunteers conducted door-to-door primary eye check-up in the Hafizpet basti area and submitted their findings to LVPEI to take up corrective measures. Fun activities, such as quiz competition and talent show for visually impaired children, were organized by the volunteers at the LVPEI campus at Jubilee Hills while others helped create talking books which can be used by visually challenged students. A 5 km charity run will be organized tomorrow (Oct 30) at the Hyderabad campus. Microsoft employees can register for participation and the proceeds from the registration will go to LVPEI and Sankara. Commenting on the association with Microsoft, the Founder & Chair, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Dr. Gullapalli N. Rao said: “The LV Prasad Eye Institute provides world class comprehensive facilities to prevent blindness and provide vision rehabilitation. We are the Global Resource Center for Vision 2020, a worldwide initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness led by World Health Organization. We are extremely thankful to Microsoft for partnering with us and supporting us on this noble cause.” The contributions received by LVPEI will be used to set up a Mobility and Sensory Park for rehabilitating people suffering from loss of vision. They will be trained on various navigation techniques that help build their confidence and reduce dependence on others. A temporary park, which was recently set up at MSIDC Hyderabad, led to significant employee engagement and generated a lot of awareness about the issue. LVPEI will also use part of the Microsoft contributions for its Regional Phone Helpline Project. This is a helpline for the visually challenged people where they can get professional guidance and counselling. In Bangalore, Microsoft volunteers will participate in a first-level eye screening for government school kids along with Sankara Eye Institution teams. All volunteers will undergo an intensive training at Sankara before they conduct the survey. This eye screening will help the Sankara Rainbow Project identify children who require corrective eye surgeries or treatments. Microsoft volunteers will also help conduct a rural eye camp and a post-operative patient survey towards the end of October. “Eyes are the most precious of our sense organs—it is our primary link to the world around us. Poor eyesight can drain the very joy of life. Sankara’s vision is to provide quality eye care to everyone, regardless of socio-economic, religious, linguistic and geographical backgrounds. Microsoft's participation in this initiative is extremely commendable and will help us in spreading awareness about the importance of preserving eye health,” said Dr. Ramani, Founder & Managing Trustee, Sankara Eye Care Institutions. Sankara will utilize MSIDC contributions for its Gift of Vision project, a door-to-door community outreach program to promote awareness and treat cataract, which is the most common form of blindness. Funds will also go towards Sankara’s Rainbow project which aims to provide eye care for visually challenged children and also to ensure that all identified irreversibly blind and low vision children receive timely rehabilitation and education services and are made aware of the facilities and benefits available for them.

About Microsoft India R&D 
Microsoft India R&D plays an important role in contributing to innovation at Microsoft – its development teams work closely with the key product families of Microsoft and makes it one of the software giant’s largest research and development centers outside Redmond. It commenced its R&D activities in Hyderabad in 1998 with about 20 people under the leadership of Srini Koppolu. Today, it has a headcount of 1500 plus people doing global product engineering for Microsoft. For more details on its product development activities please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/india/msidc