Chennai

MSSI – Chennai Chapter monthly meeting “Face to Face” Programme on 29-09-2018 started with the Meditation session by Dr. R.J. Kalpana on behalf of the “Institute of Heartfulness”.  Dr Kalpana, an erudite and perceptive writer and critic who received her PhD from the University of Mumbai. Professionally she is a consultant for Knowledge Management.  She also served on the Editorial Board for the Encyclopedia of Hinduism. It is a 30 minute follow up session as per the plan made on August 11^th meeting. Our MS Person and their caregiver enjoyed and felt relaxed at the end of the meditation session which in turn helped them to stay active for the next session. Dr. Visalam, MD., FM (Functional Medicine) USA runs an alternative medicine clinic named Orange Ray, Nungambakkam and also Chief Medical Manager at Star Health Insurance. There were around 40 MS Persons along with caregivers, got benefited from her session. Dr. Visalam herself is an MS Person and so her connectivity worked with our MS Person. She shared her experience on MS and how she has handled life all these years from age 12 to 27 years. Her talk was highly motivating and inspiring to our MS Person. She highlighted the importance of Diet, Nutrition and MS. She also gave a few tips on Do’s and Don’t’s in their regular diet from her Trial and Error experience. MS Persons and Caregivers were very attentive and participated actively by interacting with the resource person.

The evening came to a happy ending with MS person, Mr. Ashokan and Mrs. Prema Srinivasan cutting a birthday cake to the joyous singing of Happy Birthday by all the 40 MS persons and their caregivers.

Delicious snacks and tea brought the meeting to a close.

Satspandana Physiotherapy Centre along with Trivandrum Support Group conducted a Physiotherapy Session at Trivandrum on 05/08/2018. The same was conducted at Kochi Support Group on 20/09/2018.  The director of Satspandana Physiotherapy Centre, Mr. Sanjith gave details as regards necessary physical work out for MS persons. He demonstrated aerobics, simple stretching, muscle relaxation techniques. He also showed MS patients how to lie down and do the simple exercises and stretching for those who could not sit or stand properly. Breathing exercises were also covered in this session. The session was attended by MS persons along with their family members. An amount of Rs.12,000/- was collected by Trivandrum Support Group and handed over to MS person Vishnu Maheswari who was affected by the flood in Kerala.

Our Chennai Chapter monthly “Face to Face” Programme, saw our MS Warriors sit facing the cinema screen in Express Avenue cinema theatre on July 21 2018. They were there to spend a Saturday afternoon with their family and caregiver to enjoy the movie “Tik Tik Tik” an entertaining movie with sci-fi theme of science inter-wined. Popcorn and a soft drink gave them a good fill-up during the interval. The movie kept them spellbound circling in science for 2 hours and 30 minutes. When they came out of the theatre their smiling faces said it all… another movie was their talk for that evening.

Soroptimist, Chennai, an International Women’s Organisation, working for the needy, teamed up, with MSSI, Chennai Chapter, for a Medical Camp on “Incontinence in MS”  on 16/6/2018. This was to observe Incontinence Day which falls in the last week of June, 2018.

Dr. Shyamala Gopi – MBBS, MRCS, FRCS, Consultant Urologist, currently working at Apollo Main Hospital, Greams Road and Apollo First Med Hospital in Kilpauk. She has over 23 years of training  and worked in United Kingdom in Urology, and its subspecialties including Endourololgy, Laparascopy Urology, Uro Oncology, Female Urology, Neuro Urology and Urogynaecology. She is also a member Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, GLASGOW, Royal College of Surgeons EDINBURGH PLAB, UK and International Continence  Society. She was  assisted by Dr. Arasi and a nurse, went into individual consultation, for each MS person present, both ladies and gents. In all there were about 30 MS persons, who along with their caregivers, benefited by the camp. Prescriptions were given for urine culture tests, ultrasound and other diagnostic procedures to be done. MS persons were advised to do the tests within a fortnight, they would be called to show their tests results to the doctors and take it forward, by way of medicines, exercise, etc.

Birthday cakes were cut by those who celebrated their birthday this month. They were Mrs. Gayathri, Mrs. Dolly Khanna, Mrs. Dhanalakshmi, Mr. P. Balaji, and Soroptimist, Mrs. Sheila Rao.

The meeting was largely attended and the follow up camp will be held shortly.

1.”Nrithya Sandhya” Music, Dance and a talk by 4 of our MS Ambassadors in the presence of the State Commissioner of Disability, Mr. Arun Roy at Express Avenue Mall, Chennai on May 26, 2018 .

We had standees at Express Avenue mall showcasing the support, symptoms, facts on MS.
Our MSP MS. Grace Arundati did the compering part.
Our MSP’s Ms. Monolisa, Ms. Kalaivani, Mr. Rajesh, and Mr. Siva Kumar talked of their achievement with MS.

2. Creating Awareness in Chennai Metro Rail Stations.

Our committee members and volunteers in large numbers displayed standees banners and literature on MS was handed to the public at large who used the Metro Rail. The highlight of the event was that Metro Rail had opened up 10 new stations to the public 5 days earlier, and to encourage its use, the train rides on the length and breadth of the Metro Rail was free. So more number of people against our expectation thronged the stations. The highlights were that in 2 particular stations, Metro Rail, Central Mofussil Bus stand, Egmore Station–where long distance trains go down South and the local suburban electric trains meet, was our greatest awareness point – average 20,000/- people pass thru these 4 points everyday- huge awareness about Multiple Sclerosis.

3. The Cinema Screen at AGS Cinemas in Chennai

Courtesy to Mr. Sivakumar of AGS Cinemas: A slide portraying MS and its symptoms were shown on screen from Friday (25th May) to 30th May at noon, evening and night shows. This created a lot of awareness among the public at large.

4. Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Medical College, Chennai.

The Chief Guest was the Hon. Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Tamil Nadu.

This was in presence of the dean of the college, Dr.Mrs. Jayanthi, heads of all the 16 departments in the hospital, nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists, pharmaceutical company representatives, patients and press in attendance. 5 MS patients received MS AMBASSDOR AWARDS while Dr. Sarala ( Dept of Neurology) and Mrs. Ann Gonsalvez (Chairperson, MSSI, Chennai ) received MS CRUSADER AWARDS from the minister. Orange balloons were released into air, a CD on MS was released and Orange lights lit up the hospital building. It really echoed the theme “Bringing us Closer”.

5. BNY MELLON – Our CSR Partners held a Poster competition highlighting their ideas of MS.

On 30th May Evening , at DLF cybercity we had an indoor programme with BNY Mellon( our CSR partner) employees, MS persons, caregivers and Office staff. They had a completion of posters among the employees and MSP”s had the PRIVILEGE of judging the best three posters. Awards were given to the best three posters by MSSI. BNY Mellon volunteers had a small entertainment with a song, dance, and a talk show by our MS ambassador, Mr. Gopi. There was talk by 2 BNY Mellon Volunteers on how much their life and attitude has been guided after their association with MSSI,Chennai.

6. Lighting up in Orange

To mark the 21st year of the FUNCTIONING of Multiple Sclerosis Society, Chennai Chapter, 21 Prominent Buildings supported us by lighting in “orange’ colour…to name few :Rippon Building, Commissioner-Corporation of Chennai, Acropolis, Bergamo, Office of the Commissioner of Differently Abled, Office of Inspector General of Police, Hablis Hotel, Ashok Leyland corporate office, Raymond showroom, NIEPMED, Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital and The Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital – (2 of the largest teaching Hospitals), BOSCH Limited, Deutsche Bank, Apollo Hospital Administrative Office, Rajan Dental, etc.

7. Radio Talk Show

We thank Radio Chennai live 104.8 FM for broadcasting a live talk with Dr. Sivarajan Thandeeswaran, a leading Neuorlogist who spoke, on recent developments in MS – research, treatments and drugs.

Face to Face program was held on Saturday, April 7, 2018 at 3 pm.

About 40 MS persons and their caregivers and BNY Mellon volunteers attended the programs.

Before the arrival of our guest speaker, the MS persons and their caregivers were presented with a power point on India MS Day at the all Chapters. They were reminded regarding the registration for the new UDID card and disability pension.

Our guest speaker of this month’s programme was Dr Varsha, MSc. PhD, RD. CNIS, Consultant, Clinical Nutritionist.  She talked about “Nutrition & MS” through power point slides and a Health Food Chart.  We should eat according to the availability, edibility and nutritional value alone. She said diet is a more favourable means of obtaining required amounts of the body needs rather than resort to supplements. Almost all patients seek alternative method to alleviate symptoms or delay disease progression.  She said we have done enough damage to our symptoms by not taking correct food.

She showed the six group of food namely: Carbohydrates, Fat, Protein, Vitamin, mineral and Water and the meal schedule chart:

The universal meal schedule is as follows:

There were lot of queries about diet after she finished her talk and she answered them with lot of enthusiasm.

A birthday cake was cut by those who celebrated their birthday this month. They are– Mr. Shankar Ganesh, Mr. Kenzer John. and Mr. Bharat Reddy

The meeting ended with a high tea

Glimpses from the India MS Day 2018 from Chennai Chapter.

CIOSA – A Network of NGO’s, individuals and companies, along with Chennai Mission, have awarded us, a grant of Rs.5 lakhs, for our Physiotherapy Project. The funds were raised at BoB (Battle of Buffet) held in October, 2017 during Daan Ustav. Happy to be associated with CIOSA and grateful for the Grant for our Physiotherapy Project. Seven of our MS persons are benefiting from the Grant.

May 26, 2017, saw the Express Avenue Mall, Chennai’s biggest shopping Mall, reverberate the sounds of drums, music, song, dance and drama for a good 3 hours. Footfalls of all ages were more than 3000, that evening as a theatre complex with 6 theatres overlooks, the Atrium of the Mall. The theme “Life with MS” and creating awareness was brought about by two dramas – one a Koothupatharai – village play  in Tamil, and a second was a Meme in English by BNY Mellon employees, our CSR partners.

The entire evening reverberated with questions, what is MS? How do you get it? What is the cure etc? , as Volunteers distributed Orange Ribbon and leaflets on MS. Most visitors expressed the view that they had not heard the word/ disease  – Multiple Sclerosis, before. It was a great evening of creating Awareness about MS, more so because it was well attended by MS persons in Orange T Shirts with their families.

Both the skit and Meme was to make people to understand MS and its symptoms. It definitely helped to educate people about MS, early diagnosis and how proper doctor consultation is important in MS. They enacted and conveyed the essence of the day in a simple way. There were interludes of cultural items by “Rhythm of Life” group. People were entertained with songs, dance and mimicries, etc.

31.05.2017 – Human Chain.

BNY Mellon, are our CSR partners with their  employees, more than   800  of them , together with our members joined hands to form a human chain on evening of 31.05.2017, at DLF IT Park which houses about 20 IT companies.  The slogan “We’re stronger than MS” and “Life with MS” rent in the air. We all stood together to show solidarity with the rest of the World to mark “MS Day”. The Human Chain grasped the attention of all the employees in the huge 65 acre campus. It was really an “Awareness Campaign about MS”.

Lighting up of Buildings in Orange.

On the evening of 31.05.2017 – Prominent buildings were lit in Orange like Corporation of Chennai (Ripon building) Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Ragas Rajan Dental, Acropolis building, Fagun Mansion,  IIT Madras, TNPL building, Bergamo, Director General of Police, Chennai, Building  housing Commission for the Differently Abled,  to name a few.