PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE: Vanaja Vaithianathan, director of Jothi Eye Care Centre, addressing the batch of students undergoing nursing training in Puducherry.

VILLUPURAM: The tsunami has spawned a set of determined girls to become nursing assistants. The death and devastation caused by the killer waves have imbued the service motto in the residents of the coastal village of Kottakuppam.

Some of them have passed Standard X and some, Plus-Two. All of them belong to the fishing community and hence, the novelty of taking to nursing profession is all the more striking.

For R. Kalaivani, K. Sathya, K. Saraswathi, A. Jeevitha and K. Subbulakshmi, coming out of the groove is not a problem because their parents are encouraging them to do so. The fisher folk take pride in the fact that their wards are keen on serving humanity.

Ms. Kalaivani told The Hindu that when they were groping in the dark on what to do after schooling, they heard of the Asian Development Bank-aided Tsunami Emergency Assistant Programme (TEAP) launched under the aegis of the Commissionerate of Town Panchayat, to provide alternative livelihood measures.

For the ilk of Ms. Kalaivani, it was not a question of livelihood but a pursuit of career. Hence, they enrolled under the programme and underwent three-month training imparted by Dr. Reddy’s Foundation, Hyderabad.

Mr. Velusami, Livelihood Specialist (TEAP), said C.V. Sankar, Officer on Special Duty, Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation, and K. Gopal, Commissioner of Town Panchayats, had launched the ‘home care nursing assistant’ programme to provide gainful employment to the unemployed. After the first batch completed the training, Vanaja Vaithianathan, director, Jothi Eye Care Centre, Puducherry, who gave a guest lecture to the trainees, inducted the entire batch in her hospital.

Dr. Vaithianathan, a consultant ophthalmic surgeon, said the candidates had the right aptitude for the profession but their schooling in Tamil medium slowed down the mastery of skills as the record keeping ought to be done in English.

They were all adept in handling hi-tech equipment and their services would also be utilised in the community eye camps being organised periodically by the hospital.




http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/06/stories/2008040653030300.htm

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