Rotary Club of Guildford Helps Save Indian Eye Hospital

Published on: 11 Jun, 2020
Updated on: 13 Jun, 2020

The Rotary Club of Guildford has responded rapidly to support the Rotary Hooghly Eye Hospital in India that suffered damage to both buildings and vital equipment when struck by Typhoon Amphan on May 21.

The hospital was already struggling from the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Rotary Hoogley Eye Hospital.

All operations at the hospital which were due to recommence on June 1 after the Covid-19 lockdown were suspended.

This week the Rotary Club of Guildford is transferring more than £5,000 to the Rotary Club of Hooghly Welfare Trust to pay for the initial repairs and has enabled the hospital once again to treat patients.

Hooghly town is about 50 miles north of Kolkata West Bengal, India. One of the major health challenges its citizens face is a high incidence of eye problems and blindness. This has a major impact on ability of those afflicted to provide an income for their families and in looking after their homes.

In 2010, the Rotary Club of Guildford recognised the problem of blindness and the need for well equipped eye hospitals.

Through the Guildford Rotary Eye project (now known as Global Sight Solutions) the club worked with the Rotary Club of Hooghly and together mobilised other Rotary clubs and The Rotary Foundation. This Rotary partnership enabled funding for the building of the Rotary Hooghly Eye Hospital.

Since opening in 2011, more than two million patients have been seen and more than 20,000 patients had eye operations.

Many who were blind can now see enabling them to live a full life in their community.

Global Sight Solutions is a prime example of how the network of Rotary clubs around the world can work together to help the disadvantaged in all countries.

All the projects are overseen by a local Rotary club with strict financial oversight by The Rotary Foundation.

The Rotary Club of Guildford, which has served Guildford and communities round the globe for almost 100 years, is very proud to have been, and still is, the lead club for many humanitarian projects.

This story is based on a press release issued by the Rotary Club of Guildford.

Responses to Rotary Club of Guildford Helps Save Indian Eye Hospital

Bibhas Neogi Reply

June 12, 2020 at 1:27 am

Good to hear about such help for a hospital affected by cyclone Amphan.

I grew up in the town Chinsura on the banks of river Hooghly, not far from the location of this hospital although I don’t think it was there then some 70 odd years ago.

The town was established by Portuguese who built a church. From Wikipedia: “The Portuguese founded the town of Hooghly-Chuchura in 1579, but the district has thousands of years of heritage in the form of the great kingdom of Bhurshut. The city flourished as a trading port and some religious structures were built. One such structure is a Christian church dedicated to a statue of Mary, brought by the Portuguese.

“In the 17th century, political disorder struck the city and the Mughal governor of Bengal expelled the Portuguese. The fleeing Portuguese lost the statue in the river, but local people later found it on the river bank. The arrested Portuguese were taken to Delhi, where a death sentence of trampling by elephants was decreed. When the emperor Shah Jahan heard this he ordered the priests released and granted a piece of land on the bank of the river Hooghly, where the statue of Mary was reestablished. There the Portuguese constructed a church to house the statue, which still receives pilgrims today. The church was renovated in the 1980s and has been declared as a basilica by the authority of Rome.”

Shah Jahan obviously had a noble character and we know of his love for his wife, Mumtaj, entombed in the famous Taj Mahal.