ICU2

 

 

                    

 

 

The Indo-French schools of Bombay is an NGO run by Mr. Pierre Pean, a French man who has devoted the last 15 years to helping underprivileged children from the areas of Malad and Bandra.

 

In the past 2 years, DAIS and particularly the Indo-French students from Grade 11 and Grade 12 have forged strong links with the Ermitage International School in Paris. Our students have worked with children from the slums in Malad, teaching them English and playing with them. The students from France have now visited DAIS twice and have been involved in the same project. During his first visit Mr. Chris Hunter, the Principal of the Ermitage School noticed that no children were wearing glasses. After consulting various people and organisations he launched the Icu2 project, which was very much the focus of the second trip.

The students from the Optometric school in Paris joined the Ermitage students and in collaboration with the Lotus Optometric College in Juhu they managed to screen around 1500 children, some of which will require further treatment and glasses. These children belong to the slums in Malad but also to 3 other schools (Temple of Education, Holy Prophet and Muktangan).

The Optometric school in Juhu is part of an organisation, called ORBIS, trying to eradicate child blindness in India and they have funds to support such an initiative, which allows the children to have free treatment.

Our students have to follow up on the operation and make sure that all the children get their glasses and wear them.

Here are a few quotes from various people involved in the project, courtesy of Aditya Roogta’s interviews.

 

Christopher Hunter: “I set three goals: the eye screening, the development of partnership and the development of international awareness.

For the first, our goals were largely met. We managed to screen more than 1500 children in three schools. Now, of course, there is a greater goal, that of facilitating the refraction of the children who were found to need it during the screening (about 500) plus referrals to Lotus Eye Hospital. This follow up will be the most challenging part now. The particular problem is the transportation of the children who need more medical care to the Lotus Eye Hospital in Juhu. Another element of the follow up includes the question of compliance: do the children actually wear their glasses? This could make for a very interesting service project and I think that Mrs. Bailey is going to try to include this in the Malad service project.

As for partnership, this goal was largely met as well. The students of both the Ermitage and DAIS schools cemented their friendships and this will stimulate and encourage us to make plans for future visits and student exchanges. Mrs. Lenoir and Mrs. Terzian also initiated a pedagogic exchange with teachers from the primary classes at DAIS and it will be very interesting to see how this develops. We are also hoping to develop a pedagogic exchange of some sort with the teachers at the Muktangan School. The director of the Holy Prophet School has also recently been in touch with me by email and we may be able to do something there as well. There is also the partnership between the students of the Lotus College and those of the Institut et Centre dOptemtrie here and I hope that they will continue to work together.

As for international awareness, this is a rather difficult area to measure and is probably a question that must be answered by each individual. I think though that the project created a unique opportunity for everyone involved to experience a different world and to meet others.”

 

Kevin (French teacher): “In terms of the Ambani-Ermitage partnership, we are delighted with the way in which the host family set-up worked. In comparison to a year ago, our pupils got a real flavour for daily Indian life. Some of our pupils are not necessarily very outgoing and so it was a pleasure to see how at ease they seemed with you all.”

 

Prema Chande (Lotus School): “Well your aim was to screen all the children, which I guess you did very well. Now it is our duty to go ahead and complete all the children, make their glasses and live up to our commitment.”

 

Thomas Nelson (French student): “ I think that we achieved more than what was set out. We were able to screen more people than I thought. The experience brought out of the project was more than gratifying.”

 

Kevin: “The project became quite exacting towards the end in that everyone had to stretch themselves and combine a number of different activities. This, though, was a strength of the project and a sign of its success – we were not there purely for cultural tourism but also to achieve something and experience a number of different things. I feel that the cornerstone of the Icu2 part of the trip was the equal participation of each school. Without the Ambani school interpreters, we’d have screened 15 children, not 1500, and to finish the trip at Ambani all together seemed highly fitting.”