Ataullah’s family was already struggling before the floods wiped out their village. Of his six children, three daughters are disabled and were going blind until they were discovered by a LRBT medical team.
“I have six children – four daughters and two sons out of which my three daughters are completely handicapped,” said Ataullah, a labourer earning the equivalent of £35 a month. “They were in good health until the age of 5 and then their hands and feet started to cripple and now they’re unable to do anything,” he said. “We also noticed whiteness in their eyes and they could barely see anything.”Medical help was out of the question. “I have always had so little money in my pocket that I could not think beyond providing food for my family,” Ataullah said.
The recent floods forced the family to flee their village in Sind for a relief camp where a LRBT medical team found them. Attaullah’s daughters were diagnosed with developmental cataracts and transported to Karachi hospital for surgery. It was too late to completely restore their vision, but their eyesight is now much improved.
“You cannot imagine what this surgery means to us. My daughters will be able to feed themselves and will be much less frustrated because they can see around them,” said Ataullah. “LRBT has turned out to be a blessing for poor people like myself and I have no words to express my feelings for the joy they have brought to my daughters’ lives.”
Shalini Khemka, Investment Director at LDC (Lloyds Development Capital) and CEO of The London Entrepreneurial Exchange, visited Mumbai Mobile Crèches (MMC) recently where she witnessed the inspiring work of our charity partner.
Over 50,000 children of migrant construction workers live on building sites in Mumbai. MMC runs day care centres providing health and education services on the sites themselves. Since 1972 MMC has reached out to more than 150,000 children who would otherwise be left to wander on the dangerous sites while their parents worked.
Mumbai Mobile Crèches also trains women from migrant communities to become teachers so that they can run centres themselves. MMC aims to be a demonstration model of quality childcare for construction sites across India. Continue reading Corporate partner views Trust at work…
