REC Foundation have entered into an Memorandum of Agreement with Sankara Eye Hospital, Pammal as a part of their “Eye Care for all – a REC Initiative”. The Scope of the support is towards carrying out 8000 Cataract surgeries over a period of 12 months for which REC Foundation would provide a grant of Rs 6 Crores.
About Rural Electrification Corporation and REC Foundation
REC Limited is a Maharatna company under the administrative control of the Ministry of Power. The Company is involved in financing projects in the complete power sector value chain from generation to distribution. REC is the 12th Maharatna Company functioning under the purview of the Ministry of Power. The company is listed on both the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange. Business operations in India are supported by a network of 22 Regional Offices, with its corporate headquarters at Gurugram and a registered office in New Delhi. The company is currently among the top 500 Global Financial Services brands by UK-based plc Brand Finance.
REC Foundation is the CSR arm of REC Limited. REC Foundation have sanctioned over 300 CSR projects and disbursed more than Rs 1100 Crore under these projects. Their initiatives have been carried out in the fields of sanitation and hygiene facilities, promotion of healthcare facilities, skill development, women empowerment, environmental sustainability, sports and rural infrastructural development in order to facilitate an inclusive social development.
About Sankara Eye Hospital, Pammal
Sankara Eye Hospital, Pammal is a state-of-the-art Eye care facility that has been providing qualitative eye care to all sections of society for over two decades. To date the Hospital has performed nearly 385,000 surgeries and the beneficiaries have been from both rural and urban areas. The Hospital offers all sub-specialties in its portfolio of services. The working model of providing over 75% of the services free of cost makes the hospital dependent on generous Corporate donors to provide its services. The core function of the Hospital is to provide eye care to the needy poor through its Rural Outreach Programme, “Project Kannoli – Vision Saver”. Under this programme, patients are screened at the villages and those identified as in need of Cataract surgeries are brought to the hospital in the hospital vehicles, and after evaluation of fitness for surgery, are operated. After a post-operative review, they are discharged and dropped back at their villages. Patients usually stay in the hospital for two nights. Two post-operative reviews are carried out, one after 7 days and another after 30 days to confirm vision restoration. The entire intervention from screening to final review including stay, food, medicines etc are provided free of cost.
In view of the costs involved in such an intervention, the type of surgery carried out is a Small Incision Cataract Surgery (SICS) and implant of a PMMA IOL. Under Ayushman Bharat, Cataract surgeries can be carried out through Phacoemulsification and implant of foldable Hydrophobic IOLs and reimbursement claimed. However, this cannot be claimed in Tamil Nadu as Cataract surgeries are not covered under the Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (TNCMCHIS)
Details of REC Foundation Support
Sankara Eye Hospital approached REC Foundation for CSR support to carry out Cataract surgeries to needy patients through Phacoemulsification and implant of foldable Hydrophobic IOLs as admissible under Ayushman Bharat. The intention is to provide a significant benefit to the needy poor as the outcome would be superior and rehabilitation will be faster. REC Foundation agreed to provide the support and have sanctioned an amount of Rs 6 Crores to carry out 8000 Cataract surgeries over a 12 months period.
Dedication Function
At a well-attended function held at Sankara Eye Hospital on 17th February, 2025 at 4.30 pm, Sri Narayanan Thirupathy, Independent Director of REC Ltd and Smt Thara Ramesh, HoD & Chief Program Manager, REC Ltd launched “Eye Care for All – an REC Initiative”. The function started with the traditional prayer and Thamizh Thai Vaazhthu following which Wg Cdr V Shankar (Retd), Executive Director of Sankara Eye Hospital, Pammal welcomed the gathering and gave a brief introduction to the project and introduced the guests.
Sri Narayanan Thirupathy delivered an impressive address on the occasion where he highlighted the importance of the intervention and how this would help transform the lives of the rural poor beneficiaries.
The high point of the function was signing of the Memorandum of Agreement . This was signed by Smt Thara Ramesh who represented REC Foundation and Wg Cdr V Shankar (Retd), Trustee and Executive Director of Sankara Eye Hospital and the signed MoA folders were exchanged between them.
This MoA marks the beginning of an intervention that is likely to make a positive impact on the delivery of eye care to the needy and the support by REC Foundation through their “Eye Care for All” is an excellent step in this direction.
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