Community Based Programmes

Realising the need to move beyond curative work to deal with the scourge of visual impairment, Venu decided to diversify its ambit in 1998 and include rehabilitative services provided through Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programmes, which today cover a population of over 1.5 million. Venu’s CBR programmes concentrate on developmental, educational, social and economic rehabilitation along with an Integrated Education programme. Venu has already rehabilitated over 3000 people with not just vision impairment but also hearing and locomotor impairment.

Initially, the CBR programmes were concentrated in the rural areas but the need was felt to cover urban slums, which face general apathy and a severe dearth of medical facilities. Zakheera slum project, initiated in 2004, is a holistic programme that hinges on the belief that for any health programme to be a success, attention also has to be paid to the ever important issues of education and livelihood. Thus, Venu’s Zakheera slum project is working towards empowering the people of this biggest slum cluster in Delhi.

One of Venu’s recent efforts towards strengthening this concept of empowerment has been a project on education wherein Venu has initiated Venu Institute for Universal Education, which will take up courses for all students with or without any disability.

With changing lifestyles diabetes has become major health issue amongst the Indian population. With it comes the threat of diabetic retinopathy. Venu’s Diabetic Retinopathy project, which was recently initiated, deals with the problem at the community level. For the first time a programme aims to screen people for diabetes and diabetic retinopathy in Northern India