Jayam Ravi-Asin FC: August 2010

Asin Wins Hearts Of Sri Lanka!

Asin , visited Jaffna and Vavuniya, once LTTE fortresses in Sri Lanka. Asin became the first Indian celebrity to set foot in these Tamil areas in 30 years. The actress is in Sri Lanka for the last two weeks was shooting for her Hindi film Ready with Salman Khan.Earlier, Asin had met Namal Rajapaksa, MP and eldest son of the President and expressed her desire to visit the war stricken areas, when she had landed in Colombo. She also wanted to do something to help the Tamil population of the areas, and thus came up with the idea of the medical camp along with Salman's 'Being Human Foundation'.

Within a span of three days, over 300 cataract operations were performed on elderly Tamilian patients in the region.

Asin speaking to sify.com from Colombo said: “I came to Sri Lanka for work and now I want to reach out to the Tamil population and do smething within my capacity to help them. We will continue to periodically host these eye camps across the Northern and Eastern regions of Sri Lanka. Currently, there are over 10,000 patients registered in the region waiting to undergo cataract operations” Asin is indeed a brave girl as there is a lot of criticism against her visit to Sri Lanka in Kollywood circles. However Asin concluded by saying: “We will have more doctors, more equipment and more medication down then. I will do as much as I can to be of some assistance to the people of war-torn Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka.”

Asin also visited an orphanage for Tamil girls who have lost their parents in war and took part in an eye surgery. Asin along with Salman's 'Being Human Foundation' flew down five eye surgeons with 1000 eye lenses, after care medication and even the technical equipment required for the operations from India, in order to ensure the smooth success of the Eye Care Camps.”

Speaking on the occasion of her visit, the actress said, “If money is all it takes to give someone their eye sight back, then so be it. We will continue to periodically host these eye camps across the Northern and Eastern regions of Sri Lanka as long as all patients are treated.”
"I want to do whatever it takes to help these people regain their eyesight," said Asin, “We will continue to periodically host these eye camps across the Northern and Eastern regions of Sri Lanka until all the 10,000 registered patients have been attended to,” she added. Asin hopes to bring in more doctors and medication in the second phase in November. Asin's agenda is to reach out to people, simply and effectively. “To me, the best moment was when one recovering patient awoke after his operation and removed his eye patch only to be surprised to see his favourite actress standing beside his bed. The elderly patient kept asking the nurses if it was a dream! That one moment made my entire journey to Sri Lanka worthwhile.I knew I was able to not only provide sight to an elderly father in need but I was also able to reach out to the people in need and bring them genuine happiness in the little way I could,” said Asin.

Peals of laughter were heard during Asin's entire stay at the Children's home and when the time came for her to leave, a lot of chidlren were in tears, begging her not to leave. “Five more minutes akka.. five more minutes.. please...,” cried the young ones. “Please bring Vijay, Suriya, Ajith and all the other actors next time you come,” added the girls in between their sobs. Asin departed with a heavy heart, promising to convey the message.

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