KIRANA - Ray of Light

We, a group of students from Indus International School, Bangalore who believe that good education has the at most impact on uplifting children and their families living in poverty. We came to together to form Kirana (ray of light) with an intention of giving a ray of hope to our underprivileged peers and help them live their dream. In this process, we wish to sow a seed of compassion and empathy among our peers so that more of them join us in giving back to the society.

Kirana has been designed to be an ongoing self-sustaining initiative that involves eye screening, intervention programs, treatments and creating eye-care awareness.

We are grateful for the support extended by our school and our peers in kick-starting this initiative. In order to sustain the momentum, we have established a process at Indus International School wherein, a passionate, driven, like minded individuals will be nominated to be the "RAY OF LIGHT" champion for each academic year to carry this initiative forward.

A typical Kirana project targets about 200 students from an underprivileged background. Initial tests are conducted to screen their vision at the school. Over the course of several projects that we conducted, we found that about 10% (roughly around 20 students) of the students are identified with some type of visual defect that would need further investigation at an eye hospital. Out of these 10%, majority of them would need eye glasses or would need to be prescribed eye drops. There have been cases where surgical interventions have been advised.

Typical Expenses incurred in a project run by Kirana (Approximate figures)
Provide eye glasses for the 12 students  = Rs.3500
Provide eye drops for the 6 students = Rs.750
Provide advanced treatments like surgeries for the 2 students = Rs.5000
Transportation, logistics & other miscellaneous expenses = Rs. 2000
A typical Kirana Project would roughly cost around a total of Rs. 11,250 to execute
 
Our aim is to roll out a minimum of 5 projects for the academic year 2018-19
Projected cost for 5 projects = Rs. 56,250.

Our goal is to achieve a 20% year on year increase in the total students touched through this program.

For additional information on Kirana, please visit www.ourkirana.in

Meha Prabhu
Founder/Volunteer of Kirana
12th Grade Student in Indus International School