CURABLE BLINDNESS

Can you imagine a world without sight?
Imagine not being able to seeing your children or grandchildren!

Restoring sight transforms lives. A change which goes beyond the lives of individuals, for example, restoring sight of blind people can help them to go back to work and support their family out of poverty. Cataract surgery is one of the most cost effective surgical procedures, listed as one of the ten best health interventions for alleviating poverty and is truly life changing. We have funded over 100,000 life changing cataract surgeries.

India accounts to about15 million people who are blind of which 1 million are children, 80% of which is curable, cataract being the leading cause. Cataract can be cured through a simple, low cost surgery. Yet so many needlessly suffer from blindness.

Blindness is a manifestation of poverty; the poor people cannot afford surgery, their inadequate diets contribute to poor eye health and often live in rural areas with little or no access to healthcare. Having lost their vision, they inevitably lose their livelihood and their ability to support their family, driving them deeper into poverty.

We believe that no-one should be blind due to cataract and works with a number of professional organisations to eliminate blindness in India.

BIHAR

In Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, 1.4 million people are blind due to cataract, making it one of the highest concentrations of cataract blind people in the world.

For the last five years we’ve worked hand in hand with the Akhand Jyoti Eke Hospital (AJEH) to combat blindness across the state.

We’ve funded surgeries, a new hospital ward to increase surgical capacity and implemented rigorous monitoring and evaluation systems. In 2016-17 we funded another 30,250 sight restoring surgeries in Bihar – but for us that’s not enough – together with AJEH we are part of a visionary programme that plans to eliminate the back log of curable blindness in Bihar.

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NORTH EAST

Our work in the north eastern States of Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram, has a particular focus on outreach to some of the most remote and poorest village communities. The hilly subtropical terrain and lack of transport in these regions present big obstacles in ensuring access to eye care.

We partner with Mission for Vision to provide training to volunteers, ASHA workers, hold outreach screening camps, increase referrals to hospitals and subsidise free eye surgeries.

Together our goal is to declare these remote villages, free from avoidable blindness.

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ODISHA

There are over 560,000 blind people living in Odisha (formerly Orissa), about 347,000 of which are blind due to cataract.

Though the State has several eye care service providers, the sporadic distribution of services limits peoples� understanding of eye health and available treatment.

In our vision to eliminate curable blindness in rural areas, we have partnered with L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) to build The Arjun Waney Eye Centre. Once fully functional the hospital will provide comprehensive eye services to about 25,000 people annually through its state of the art outpatient department and surgical team.

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