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The project was finally then conveyed to Honorable Dato’ Dr. Lim Siow Jin, who without any delay agreed to own the project with all his support. He had provided his guidance and prod- uct support to start the project and believed that DXN would be helpful in reducing the number of children who are suffering from this problem. There were two major issues:1. Who will manage the project in Pa- kistan (As DXN Pakistan is a Multina- tional Commercial Organization and is not allowed to go to villages and talk to native villagers or patients?2. From where and how will finance come and be controlled?We started discussing this project with DXN members and luckily found that there was a member Engr. Akram Lodhi who had joined DXN to make a research for his own problem. He was asked to discuss the media summa- ry which showed that according to a report of the Federal Government of health, National Nutrition survey pro- gram 2011, approx 16% population of Pakistan is suffering from malnutri- tion which also transforms into Night blindness (VAD). If ignored, they all will turn into complete blindness. Engr. Akram Lodhi immediately ac- cepted to take up this project with his NGO Called Vision Foundation.Adopting the Project by VF: First Problem was solvedAbout Vision Foundation:Engr. Akram Lodhi graduated fromthe University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore Pakistan in 1990. He started his career as Mechanical Engineer, but in the beginning of his career he became blind due to incur- able eye disease called RP (Retinitis Pigmentosa) which also started with Night Blindness. He knew what blind- ness really is, therefore he established Vision Foundation to fight against blindness.Vision Foundation is a nonprofit wel- fare organization established in June 2010 and registered with assistant registrar joint stock companies Govt. of Sindh and stand approved under income tax ordinance 2001 Section 2 Clause 36. Mr. Wajid Ali Khan Durra- ni former I.G. Police Sindh, D.G NAB, Sindh is the patron in Chief of Vision Foundation. Joining hand with VF, the first major problem was solved as VF agreed to manage this project and the liaison with the local village authority and the actual villagers. VF also agreed to go to the problematic area and start enrolling effected chil- dren and to bring them to Karachi for the checkup and treatment. They also agreed to have full database with de- tails and comprehensive information of the children.Historical Background:Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is the most common cause of blindness in developing countries, due to malnu- trition. Roughly, one out of three chil- dren under the age of five globally suffers from VAD. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 13.8million children to have some degree of visual loss related to VAD. VAD causes that millions of children to go blind and claims the lives of 670,000 children under five annually.Pakistan has an alarmingly high lev- el of malnutrition, and specially Vita- min A deficiency (VAD) is the leading cause of Night Blindness and its pro- longed deficiency leads to complete blindness.Types of Night Blindness:In 2010, we started a study on Night Blindness and found 2 major causes of Night Blindness: 1. RP (Retinitis Pigmentosa): It is an in-curable eye disease all over the world.2. Night Blindness (VAD) caused by malnutrition: Deficiency of Vita- min A is the result of malnutrition; according to medical science it is curable but there is no particular medicine and time of cure. In Pa- kistan there are millions of children suffering from Night Blindness due to malnutrition so Vision Founda- tion decided to carry out a detailed research on this.The adopted procedure:1. Initially Vision Foundation with the help of the financial support by Mr. Vajid Ali Durani was able to bring the children in batch of 15 at a time from effected villages. The toughest job was to convince the children and families and bring them from the vil- lages.6DXN LIFE Magazine


































































































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