Hindu Council of Kenya (HCK) Kisumu branch is set to organise a free eye camp that targets over 1,000 patients for free surgery.
The council trustee member Ramesh Mehta said the camp will be set up at Uzima University College in the outskirts of Kisumu City on the August 16.
Mehta said there will be free medicine and reading glasses to the patients who will turn up adding that more serious cases will be referred to Sabatia Eye Hospital from where most doctors at the medical camp will be drawn from.
“This activity will cost around Sh1 million to cater for all the expenses including surgery,” he said.
He further announced that the council has received a major boost from Zool Nimji Trust in Nairobi and extended thanks to the Hindu members for their contribution towards the course.
Addressing the press in Kisumu on Monday ahead of the eye camp, Mehta said the council chose the venue since the college is offering medicine courses and the event will give opportunity to the students to interact and learn.
Mehta said there are students studying ophthalmology who have shown interest in working with the doctors during the exercise.
“Any one suffering from any eye problem, be it an old person, an adult or a child, come over and be seen by the qualified doctors. We will open from 9am ad continue u to 3 o’clock but will extend the duration if the number is high,’ he said.
He noted that for one cataract surgery in a private hospital in the country costs between Sh90,000 and Sh150,000.
The council's Kisumu Branch chairman Gurdeep Panesar said the Hindu community is giving back to the people for the peaceful coexistence.
Panesar said for several years, the Hindu people have been living without any fear or discrimination among the people of Kisumu thus the need to give back to the society.
“This is one of the first camp going to be done by the Hindu Council in Kisumu and definitely we will in the future organise other eye camps or a general medical camp,” he said.