Shah Rukh Khan’s Meer Foundation has facilitated aid to acid victims for years and now is organizing a free Plastic surgery camp followed by specialized eye surgery camp along with Atijeevan Foundation and New Hope Hospital.
The inaugural event was held on, 13th of July in Chennai, followed by surgeries commencing post-screening until evening 4:30 pm.
Meer Foundation has organized several activities for the empowerment and upliftment of women, especially towards the acid attack victims. In order to provide the best quality treatment to acid attack survivors across the country, the initiative started by Atijeevan Foundation has provided surgeries to survivors for the past two years in partnership with Meer Foundation.
Sharing his thoughts on Meer Foundation’s initiative, Venky Mysore, Director, Meer Foundation, says, “We at Meer Foundation have always been striving to provide a helping hand to the strong acid attack victim survivors. Through our journey over the years, we have tried to make a difference to empower women who have faced traumatic experiences in their lives. Apart from the mental trauma, the victims are also subjected to extreme physical sufferings and are often void of facilities to treat the same. Through Meer, we try to take away the financial burden of their treatment, thereby providing them with facilities to live a better and happier life. With every initiative, we envision growing our universe to facilitate more number of women. The plastic surgery and eye surgery camp in association with Atijeevan Foundation and New Hope Hospital aims to provide best quality treatment to Acid attack survivors across the country.”
Speaking about objectives of the camp Dr. Ganapathy says “The management and treatment of Acid Victims is long drawn and complicated. The society needs to be sensitized in accepting such victims within its fold rather than shun or isolate them. Such a program cannot be a one-man show – it has to be a collective effort by the society, the government, the law enforcers, the judiciary, the social workers, the medical community, NGO’s and the corporates. We are a group of five energetic, highly motivated, skilled and experienced plastic surgeons who have been involved in burn care for over 20 years. While we work in a corporate environment the very thought of being associated with NGOs and likeminded people in a program to alleviate the suffering of acid victims is very exciting. Our group comprises of members who are specialized in all forms of reconstruction as well as aesthetic surgery including laser surgery. This would give us the ability to give a complete makeover to these patients so that they can return to the society with their heads held high. We would be very happy to be involved in many more such endeavors wherein, while we try to bring back the smiles on their faces a sense of immense pleasure and fulfilment would fill our hearts.”
Dr. Simon Hercules, Chairman New Hope Brain and Spine Centre adds, “Being in the health care industry for almost three decades. At various level from medical student, duty medical officer consultant and now chairman of the hospital I learnt certain medical condition needs long term multi sectoral approach to make the individual lead a productive life. One among them is burns especially acid burns. Acid Burn patients are patients forever they need multiple reconstruction for many years and multiple stages may be unimaginable for the lower middle-class people as they can’t even afford single stage. That is where we social beings have to play a significant role, when Atijeevan approached us I happily accepted it since it was matching our Moto of providing affordable and quality care to all. Hearty congratulations to Atijeevan for this initiative and gratitude to Meer foundation to fund the Surgeries. New Hope Hospital is happy to play little role in this great initiative.”
Pragya Singh, founder of Atijeevan foundation says -We have created a platform to showcase all possible treatment and empowerment opportunities available for our fellow Acid attack survivors. we look forward to keep doing this camp in other cities to provide quality surgeries to the survivors. On Plastic Surgery day, this burn camp is one honest attempt to provide best medical care to all the Acid attack survivors who keep coming to us from all parts of country. I understand the importance of right surgery at right time in amending the lives of survivors and there could be no better way to provide free of cost Quality Surgery to them by most renowned Doctors in the country.
This Camp would not be possible without the angels in my life Prof. Dr. Nirmala Subramanian a pioneer in Oculoplastic surgery and who has performed most of my Surgeries, not only salvaged my life but inspired me to take care of others like me. Dr. K Sridhar, VP, and head of ICAPS team at SIMS hospital, who with his energy and dedication has always inspired and guided me throughout this camp how to keep moving forward and do the right thing. I also want to thank Smith & Nephew for supplying us best quality dressing material in all our Surgical camps. I look forward to this camp which will be more special this time as for the first time we are going to focus on a specialized need for eye surgeries for all the patients. ”
Meer Foundation has time and again extended their support to the acid attack victims and organizes initiatives and Programmes that empower and strengthen Women.
