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Rouka Joins Hands with Rotary Club of Cochin to promote Project Nethra
As a part of Diwali celebrations Rouka joined hands with Rotary Club of Cochin to focus on their project for eye care and awareness called Project Nethra. The aim of this project is to increase the awareness of eye complications resulting from Diabetes and thereby prevent some of the blinding complications of the disease. Access to affordable yet modern eye care in rural areas is the need gap that this project aims to fill.
“We wanted to bring focus on the various aspects of the project through a show that was metaphoric of the work that is being carried out. We decided to do an art/fashion presentation of clothes with the project in mind,” says Sreejith Jeevan of Rouka. “What a wonderful act it is to gift vision! Rouka believes there is beauty in our everydays, and to be able to see and experience it brings great joy. In admiration of Rotary’s Project Nethra, our show too rejoices in light that enters the body through the eyes. The light that lends colour to vision, the unbiased rays shining on everyone irrespective of caste, creed and age, just like our models. Rouka speaks with it’s elements on the ramp today, urging you to break away from cages and soar towards good health. As we celebrate Diwali, here’s to moving from darkness to light, both of the mind and the eye,” explains Sreejith.
Clothes and styling– The clothes were curated from ROUKA’s collections and put together in layered style as an idea for the multiple layers of work including awareness creation, treatment and prevention, that go into a project such as this. With a blend of various materials that came together we wanted to signify how it was important for people of all kind to come together into a beautiful ensemble to be able to create results. The clothes has characteristic quirky details of ROUKA- motifs from the beautiful everyday such as flowers, birds, postcards and text which are things that the gift of vision can bring to your life.
Models– 9 volunteers from the club were the models. They were from all age groups, sizes, colour and community- as a symbol of how the project aims to reach as many people. We had girls who are still in college to women in their sixties- all walking in the same way, their eyes not seeing the people around them and their faces not acknowledging the audience- without emotion and to the same tone of music, as they walked right in the middle of the audience.
Make up– The focus of the make up was to literally ‘throw light on the eyes’ with gold.
Colours– The colours were black and white which was metaphoric of the dark and the light with highlights of rust and red that speaks of alertness and action. Gold was used as an accent to bring in the element of light and its meaning in the context of vision
Decor– The decor had bird cages with no birds in them but all the birds that were outside as a metaphor to creating a community where no one was in the cage of blindness. The colour palette remained the same- rust, gold and white.
Lighting– The show was held in a dark room with just one spotlight that followed each model as they entered the room. We wanted to focus on the idea that this project will aim to find and through light on each of the person who are affected due to blindness.
About Nethra
The Rotary Club of Cochin in association with the SSM Eye Research Foundation seeks to start a Mobile Eye clinic (Mobile Tele-Ophthalmology Clinic) to screen needy patients in far flung areas and provide them with advisory, rehabilitative assistance. The SSM Eye Research Foundation is a registered Charitable Trust formed to undertake community centric activities such as
a) Free Cataract Surgery to patients under the poverty line
b) School Screening Programmes
c) Conduct Diabetic Retinopathy Awareness and Screening camps to prevent avoidable blindness
d) Provide rehabilitation to the Visually handicapped.
The trust has conducted over 600 camps in the past 10 years. The Rotary Club of Cochin has been providing free Eye camps in its premises the Rotary Balbhavan for the past 4 years in association with the SSM Foundation. The Rotary Club of Cochin has also been associated with the SSM Foundation for more than 10 years in conducting many medical camps in rural areas to serve the weaker sections of the society.
Through early detection of Diabetic Retinopathy, Glaucoma and Cataract we can provide the gift of sight by treating avoidable blindness. The primary need that the project is going to address is accessibility of comprehensive eye care to the economically and socially underserved with focus on geographically isolated and challenging areas in the state of Kerala by launching a mobile tele-ophthalmology unit.
The conventional screening programs like camps and mass awareness programs cover only 2 or 3 levels of the strata. Mobile Tele-ophthalmology project aims at delivering at least five levels of care at the first point of contact with the target population at their own geographical limits. Patients who require further specialised care will be referred to the base hospital where they will be given subsidised medical or surgical care.
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