For Children’s Day, Sankara Eye Hospital invited writer and poet, Dr H S Venkatesha Murthy to spend some time with close to thirty visually impaired and sighted children at the hospital in Kundanahalli. HSV read out excerpts from his popular work, Hakkisalu, a collection of poems for children while the young ones sat listening to him in rapt attention. The event also saw HSV interacting with the children and giving away gifts including games such as ludo and chess, specially made for the blind.The book reading session aimed at sharing experience of reading with visually impaired children for whom, the act of reading is a challenge. Dr Y Umesh, Chief Medical Officer, Sankara Eye Hospital, Sankara’s comprehensive preventive eye care program for children said, “Books are a great source of joy and inspiration, especially for young minds. With Children’s Day having just gone by, we felt it was important to spare some thought for those children who do not possess the gift of sight. We are grateful to Dr. Venkatesha Murthy for having taken the time out to be with our children here”.There are 320,000 blind children in India, which accounts for 19 per cent of the world’s blind children. Over 50 per cent of these cases are either treatable or preventable. At the conclusion of the session, Dr Ventakesha Murthy said, “I am happy to be part of this initiative by Sankara Eye Hospital to provide a taste of the literary world to children with visual disabilities. Prose and poetry have the power to touch and inspire every human being and there is no reason why a child with a visual disability should be robbed of the experience of good literature.” After the book reading, HSV distributed audio books of Manadha Maathu by author Sudha Murthy to the children. The audio books were co-sponsored by Bookstalk Audiobooks.
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