Daljit Kahlon will never forget the look of sheer delight on the faces of people whose vision was restored through the efforts of a society he founded to help the poor in his homeland of India.“I’m so happy,” he said while seated in his King George Road business, Dal’s Home Furnishings. “For one guy, it was 19 years after that he could see his family again. For another man it was after 17 years because he could not afford to see a doctor since he had been in an accident.”
Since Kahlon initiated the Guru Garib Niwaj Welfare Society two years ago, about 6,000 impoverished citizens of India have had their sight restored.
“The hospital authorities did not charge me anything and by the grace of God my eyes are totally well and functioning properly,” Pradeep Kumar said in a letter to Kahlon after undergoing cataract surgery. “I always pray…that you, residing in Canada, are helping such a poor person in India, for which I am very grateful.”
In the last year alone about 325 cataract surgeries and one kidney surgery were performed through the society’s free eye and medical camps offered to impoverished people in several districts of Punjab.
The society also paid a young woman’s tuition fee so she could go to university to become a physician. In turn, she will offer her services to the society when yearly eye camps are held. On Wednesday Kahlon left for his third trip to India to assist a team of doctors who volunteer their services to the Guru Garib Niwaj Welfare Society for nominal fees. About 200 cataract surgeries are scheduled for Jan. 22.
From there, Kahlon and his team will round up more impoverished residents in two other districts to offer their services. He expects over 500 surgeries will be performed during his three-week stay. Pollution levels are blamed for high incidents of eye infections, cataracts and eye-related allergies in India, Kahlon said.
“We provide medicine for things like dry eyes and allergies for all ages,” he said. “It costs you 10,000 rupees (for cataract surgery through traditional hospitals.) If they go through us, it costs 1,800 rupees.”
That is considerable savings for a country whose citizens often make only 45 rupees a day if they are lucky enough to find construction or farm work, Kahlon said. That equates to $1 Canadian a day.
The society’s services are provided free to the poor. Much of the funding comes from money raised here in Brantford, largely by the Sikh Association of Brantford, as well as in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Kahlon was witness to the overwhelming poverty in India when he was invited to be part of the opening ceremonies for a school built for poor children in New Delhi in 2007.
He saw one boy living under a bridge and drinking water from an unsanitary canal. The society that invited Kahlon to the opening ceremonies was helping to feed and clothe 500 children attending the school in New Delhi and another 1,000 children attending a school it helped build in Hadar Badh.
“I said we need to help those people,” Kahlon said. “We are trying to make life better.”
Kahlon hopes to raise about $20,000 this year to provide medical assistance to impoverished people in India. The Sikh Society of Brantford has been very generous in raising funds for the society, and Kahlon praises the support offered by Brant MPP Dave Levac.
All funds are directed to the eye and medical camps. If more than $20,000 is raised, money will be directed to organizations here at home, including the Brantford food bank and local shelters.People can donate to the Guru Garib Niwaj Welfare Society at 250 King George Rd., Unit 8, or by calling Kahlon at +91-86991-80975
