This wonderful photo was taken at Mahila Milan 2008, PRASAD Chikitsa’s program for the Self Help Groups (SHGs) in honor of International Women’s Day. Read more
Meet Gotya, PRASAD Chikitsa's Youngest Eye Surgery Recipient
Editor’s note: Dr. Anurag Agarwal, PRASAD Chikitsa eye surgeon, sent us this touching story about the youngest person, so far, to have cataract surgery at Gurudev Siddha Peeth Netra Chikitsa Hospital.
Bhalchandra Shanwar Mokne (Gotya) is a 13-year-old boy who lives with his parents and
two siblings in Ghotawade, a small rural village of about 300 people. He
had been blind since he was a small child; his parents remembered him playing
as a toddler, but then he started losing his vision, becoming completely
blind by the age of five. His siblings, because they could see fine, took
Gotya’s blindness as a curse upon them. He could not go out and play
with other children or help his parents in the brick kilns where they were
working.
Gotya’s parents have been worried about him as they are getting
old and know that they cannot look after him forever. Early this year,
while they were working at the brick kilns, the PRASAD Chikitsa Outreach
Team came there, looking for blind and visually compromised people. When
the team heard about 
Gotya, they asked his father to bring him for the screening camp at Zidke
on February 5, 2007. PRASAD doctors examined Gotya and determined that
he had bilateral cataracts. Gotya’s parents could not believe, at
first, that he could have his sight restored, but agreed to have the procedure
done.
On February 24th, the PRASAD Chikitsa eye doctors operated on one of Gotya’s eyes. The next day, the bandages were removed; Gotya could see his parents! They broke into tears of joy and hugged him.
Gotya will be coming back to PRASAD Chikitsa for cataract surgery on
his other eye soon, but already, his life has changed. This boy, who sat
in his home all day, unable to take part in so much of life, now wants
to play, study and go to college to become an eye doctor!