It is said that “leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” and thus was the life, journey and legacy of Dr. R.S.Ayyar, former Dean of IIT Bombay. Dr. R.S. Ayyar, passed away on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 in San Jose, CA. He was 87 years old. He is survived by his wife, Parvathy, daughters Ranjani and Jayashree, his sons-in-law, Anil Saigal and Ganapathy Kumar, and his three grandchildren, Amrita, Arun and Meena.

Ram and Meetu Gupta of Carlisle, MA have decided to dedicate a new resource center to the memory of Ram Gupta’s late father Shri Lachhman Das Gupta, who passed away on October 10, 2019.Shri Lachhman Das Gupta was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, when he started losing his eyesight  at the age of 30, and was nearly blind by the age of 50. He was blind most of his life yet he had a strong sense of social responsibility, empathy for others, and a deep sense of understanding for people around him.

Vision-Aid, announced its new leadership team for 2020-21. This year’s leadership team, in addition to its 15-member Board of Directors and 10-member Board of Advisors adds a new body – the Council of Ambassadors, which will provide leadership in the area of community engagement, inclusion and advocacy, with a special focus on youth. The team includes an eminently qualified and diverse range of members drawn from a wide range of fields, including Ophthalmology, Optometry, Occupational Therapy, Finance, Technology, Health, Management, Academia and Law. Notably, 17 of the 28 members in the leadership team are women.

Jeyanthi Ghatraju is a Vision-Aid ambassador and an active member in the Boston Vision-Aid community. She and her son Pranav visited Vision-Aid’s National Resource Center at Aravind eye hospital, Madurai on Jan. 30, 2020. "It was heart warming for me just as I walked in", said Jeyanthi . Some forty years ago, her aunt was one of the patients having lost vision as a young teenager to a mysterious fever. At that point, the family decided to avail the resources available and give her rehabilitation to live a life of dignity and self respect, it brought back memories.

A milestone week ended at Vision-Aid Vizag last Saturday. Vision-Aid partners from four locations in India convened for a week-long specialized training program. This Partner Training program (PTP) saw team members from Delhi, Agra, Pune and Berhampur (8 in total). 5 of them stayed in Vizag for the full week, and 3 of them also visited Vision-Aid’s partner Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai.

We are delighted that the wonderful teams from SCEH (Shroff Charity Eye Hospital), Vision-Aid India, Vision-Aid USA, and Gyaanmantra, our tech partner worked together to set up the VA-SCEH first phase of the Vision-Aid Resource Center and finally on 12th February 2020, our class on Basic Computer Literacy was started.

Mr Reddi Krishna is one of the students admitted, after three a level screening, into the Vision-Aid Maskati Scholarship. This scholarship was constituted by Ms. Loubaina Buxamusa of Massachusetts (MA), in the loving memory of her late parents’ Dr Badam and Mariam Maskati. The Scholarship Training program (STP) under this fund commenced on July 2019 and will end on 15th February 2020. The training includes intensive instructiion in Computer Operation, Spoken English , Mobile Application and coaching for competitive exams.

“Inclusive STEM Confluence” is a very unique, one of a kind event, organized by five organizations – I-STEM, IIIT-B, Vision-Aid, Vision Empower and XRCVC. It has has three components. The center-piece is an inclusive hackathon that brings together visually impaired coders with software engineers from the Industry and students from IIIT and other colleges to code on exciting projects in a 24-hour hackathon setting. Confluence also includes a series of hi-tech workshops where visually impaired can learn about latest technical concepts like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Blockchain. It also has an Employer Connect Program which connects them with top Employers.

Vision-Aid is proud to report that it's successful collaboration with Sankara Nethralya, Chennai is having a impact on the community. Vision-Aid’s collaboration with the Low Vision Clinic at Sankara Nethralaya/Medical Research Foundation started in July 2017. The goal was to provide free and subsidized low vision devices to the visually impaired “non-paying” patients.

Vision-Aid launched  its first center 15 years ago. This center has become the flagship for Vision-Aid efforts all over India. Ramakrishna and Revathy Raju had opportunity to visit Vizag to meet with the Vision-Aid family there to celebrate many major milestones. There were many things to celebrate in Vizag this year, the launch of Vision-Aid's first residential scholarship program, the launch of Vision-aid's extension center and much more.