Institut et Centre d’Optometrie (ICO), Bures, France and Lotus College of Optometry, Mumbai, India completed a decade of Indo-French student exchange program in 2016
Indo-French exchange program of Institut et Centre d’Optometrie (ICO), Visionsolidev, France and Lotus College of Optometry, Mumbai, India has successfully completed a decade in February 2016. A 14 member delegation, comprising of 12 students, 2 faculty members and 2 Opticians were in India from February 21st to March 5th, 2016.
The program is a result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Schools of Optometry for exchange of knowledge and culture. The French group were welcomed at Lotus College on February 22nd by the college faculty and students where they were also inducted about the activities planned for the next two weeks.
The subsequent week were packed with camps, scientific session, cultural event and city tour. Special eye camps were organised with the help of Rotary club, and students of Lotus and ICO, under faculty supervision worked to examine patients, prescribe spectacles, screened for ocular diseases and referred to Lotus eye hospital for further evaluation.
During this period 2449 people were screened out of which 2091 were children, 137 were special children and 221 were adults. 83 patients were referred to Lotus eye hospital for further evaluation and 153 pair of spectacles will be distributed free of cost.
On the occasion of Founder’s Day, on February 27th, 2016, a scientific session was organised with participations for oral, poster and case presentations in Shree Naval P. Baliwalla Scientific Session. Dr Viswanathan also conducted a quiz on Optometry during the session to make the event more interactive. The day was concluded with a cultural evening with students putting up excellent dance shows from each school.
A city tour was organised for the group of French students on February 28th, where they got a glimpse of the rich culture and history of Mumbai city. The event was concluded by a closing ceremony on March 4th, 2016 with presentations by representatives of both schools capturing the learning of the past two weeks.
