Service Above Self Award
Alok is from the Rotary Club of Wagga Wagga, and was presented with his award by Rotary International President Kalyan Banerjee
on the occasion of his visit to D9700.
Our congratulations go to him on a well deserved award
"Tonight we are honoured to have President Kalyan to present the Rotary International Service Above Self Award. This is Rotary’s highest recognition for individual Rotarians. Awardees have demonstrated exemplary humanitarian service on a continuing basis. The emphasis is on personal volunteer efforts and active involvement in helping others through Rotary. It is an internationally competitive award granted to a maximum of 150 Rotarians globally each year who are examples of Service Above Self.
The Award was last made in D9700 in 2008 to John Glassford. (Ray King in 96-97, Bill Donaldson 99-00)
Tonight the award is being presented to a Rotarian who has been a member of the Wagga Wagga Club for 9 years. He comes originally from Haryana State in India, where he did his initial medical training and came to Australia in 1994 to undertake his specialist ophthalmic training, before moving to Wagga Wagga in 2002 to establish the Riverina Eye Care Centre - that Rotarian is of course Alok Sharma.
On a return trip to India to visit relatives, Alok met a Sister in the Hindu temple where he worshipped. She sowed the seed of the idea of conducting eye surgery camps near his home town. Alok took his dream to his new Rotary Club and together they set about raising funds for his first eye camp for the project "Darkness to Light".
Dr Sharma conducted the first eye camp in November 2005 at the Civil Hospital, Yamuna Nagar in Haryana State, India, some 4 hours drive north of Delhi. Alok contacted the Charter President of the Rotary Club of Yamuna Nagar - Riviera in D3080, which became enthusiastic partners in "Darkness to Light". With the help of family members touring many of the 150 villages in the District to promote the free eye camp, the original plan was to help 1,100 patients. More than 2,000 turned up and Dr Sharma's team of local doctors and volunteers from Wagga Wagga, did 245 free cataract operations, screened 400 people for spectacles and gave away 230 new pairs and issued some 700 medications. The Rotary Club of Wagga Wagga paid for the cost of each operation, medicine, glasses and food for each patient and carer. Dr Sharma has conducted more camps in 2007 and 2011, in cooperation with the Rotary Club of Yamuna Nagar - Riviera, with other camps planned in future years. In September 2010 a school camp was conducted at Budia Primary School to undertake dental and eye checks for 500 students. The impressive achievements of the project to date, include 4,036 patients seen, 670 cataract operations performed, 1,115 sets of glasses issued and 2,350 medicines dispensed.
Darkness to Light has expanded through the work and efforts of Dr Sharma and the Rotary Club of Yamuna Nagar - Riviera to encourage eye donations and to get other professionals involved eg. Dental College staff for the 2010 school camp to screen and treat children with dental problems for free and upskill staff.
Alok Sharma a very worthy recipient of the Rotary International Service Above Self Award."