The Miriam Hyman Memorial Trust (MHMT) &
The Miriam Hyman Children's Eye Care Centre (MHCECC)

L V Prasad Eye Institute, Bhubaneswar. The MHCECC is on the ground floor to the right of the portico

The Miriam Hyman Memorial Trust is UK Registered Charity number 1124032. It exists (1) to support the Miriam Hyman Children's Eye Care Centre within the L V Prasad Eye Institute, Bhubaneswar, and (2) to raise awareness of avoidable blindness in the developing world.

Report on the inauguration of the MHCECC here

Download the brochure for the MHCECC (.pdf)

On 3rd July 2008 the newly-built Miriam Hyman Children’s Eye Care Centre opened within the two-year-old L V Prasad Eye Institute in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, north east coast of India. www.lvpei.org

The change in our plans follows a decision to utilise capital and interest in the Miriam Hyman Memorial Fund held by ORBIS UK, which has been transferred to the Miriam Hyman Memorial Trust.

This, together with compensation money following 7/7, has provided essential equipment for the MHCECC. The MHMT will support the Centre in consultation with the L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI). In the short-term the MHMT will provide state-of-the-art equipment and make the environment child-friendly and welcoming, while in the future there are unlimited possibilities for expansion and training programmes.

There are approximately eight million blind people in India; one million are under sixteen. Visual impairment has a devastating impact on a child's development, education, life chances and quality of life.

Approximately fifty per cent of childhood blindness is preventable or treatable. Early diagnosis and treatment can significantly reduce the debilitating effects of visual impairment on a growing child’s life.

The Miriam Hyman Children's Eye Care Centre at L V Prasad Eye Institute, Bhubaneswar (BLVPEI), is committed to providing high-quality comprehensive eye care to children, with special focus on those who are underprivileged and underserved, by offering:
• advanced diagnostic tests for out-patients and in-patients
• care for all subspecialties of ophthalmology, as well as rehabilitative and low vision services
• state-of-the-art surgical facilities, including pre-operative and recovery rooms
• child-friendly waiting and play areas
• specialist paediatric teams
• an excellent quality of service irrespective of the ability to pay

The Miriam Hyman Children’s Eye Care Centre will make an impact on the lives of thousands of underprivileged children, who otherwise have little access to eye care in the state of Orissa (population: 50 million). Between July and September 2008 there were 1,789 outpatient consultations at the MHCECC, of which 1385 were paying and 404 non-paying patients. There were 124 surgical procedures, of which 70 were paying and 54 non-paying patients.

L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, set up in 1987, is a globally recognised Centre of Excellence. It is also a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for the eradication of preventable blindness by the year 2020 through an initiative called Vision 2020: The Right to Sight


Development of the MHCECC

Plans are being developed for a paediatric eye cancer facility at the Miriam Hyman Children's Eye Care Centre. Space is available, and skilled personnel are in place; equipment is needed such as surgical aids and support services, such as the expansion of the existing pathology lab. The total cost will be £70,000 which can be broken down into discrete sub-totals. The support of the MHMT in this enterprise will be vital to the expansion of the centre. It will mean going beyond saving sight into potentially saving the lives of children with ocular cancer. It is an important first step to achieving the long term goals expressed by Dr G N Rao (Chair, LVPEI) and Dr T Das (Director, BLVPEI) in their speeches at the inauguration of the MHCECC:

Dr Rao: “Today’s inauguration is just the beginning of a long journey. Our vision for the Centre is that in the next five years, every child in Orissa who needs any form of eye care should have access to the highest quality of eye care through the Centre. By the year 2020, no child in the State of Orissa should be needlessly blind or visually impaired. By that I mean that if there is something that can be prevented, we should be able to achieve that; if there is something that can be treated, we should be able to achieve that.”

Dr Das: “I dream that the Centre grows to an Institute of its own – the Miriam Hyman Children’s Eye Institute, in 5 years. It will be an institute where we create and practice new knowledge, an institute where we translate medicine from lab to clinic and from clinic to curb side.”

Work in progress: Installing equipment at the MHCECC	Decorating the MHCECC to make it child-friendly
The MHCECC plaque and inaugural candle	Dr Kesarwani, Head of the MHCECC with his family
BLVPEI patient notes. The green files are for non-paying patients	The MHMT funded the equipment for the MHCECC. This is diagnostic examination equipment
Specialised hardware and software including a Braille printer	Optometric equipment
Children have been receving treatment at BLVPEI since it opened in 2006	Now they have their own Centre within the Institute
It's a less intimidating experience for them	in specialised, child-friendly surroundings
The first MHCECC patient on 4th July 2008 The rehabilitation expert includes the parents at every step of the process	A depiction of the MHCECC by a pupil at the neighbouring SAI International School

Click here to watch video of Rebhabilitation Specialist, Reema Helan, demonstrating training equipment (.wmv) (103MB therefore will take some time to download)

Sunday 02-Nov-2008