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Odisha

Studies have shown that the return on investment for every dollar spent restoring vision in a developing country is 1,500% and it was found that India loses roughly $37 billion in lost production annually to blindness and poor vision.

The Project

Our goal in Odisha is to provide care to approximately 1,000,000 people in India through the creation of two Eye Centers in Balasore and Keonjhar. Each complex will bring high quality sight-restoring eye care to the doorsteps of people in one of the three poorest regions of India. The patients will be given minor treatment, provided with glasses, and screened for more serious diseases at their vision screening center and, if further treatment is needed, transported to the eye center where they will be provided with the necessary outpatient and surgical procedures to treat blindness. This is all done free of charge.

These eye centers will operate within the tiered eye care system pioneered with the renowned LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI). This network ensures sustainability, while still managing to reach millions of people and provide eye care, free of charge, to those who need it most. This system of eye care facilities radiates out from large centers in major urban areas into small clinics in rural areas.

The varied network allows patients to move up the system until they can receive the level of care they need and allows payment from the larger urban areas to move to the poorer, rural areas. With the creation of the eye centers in Balasore and Keonjhar the blind can have their sight restored, allowing them to take care of themselves and become productive members of the community again, allowing their caretakers to return to school or work, and relieving their family and community of their burden. This project will sustainably deliver the eye care so desperately needed for generations to come. The visually impaired will regain their independence and the economic productivity of the community will grow and thrive without being hindered by residual effects of blindness.

Proposed Outcomes:

  • Reduce/eliminate cataract blindness and screen entire population in Balasore and Keonjhar, Odisha, India.
  • Create a center which will train, educate and employ local people.
  • Research the major factors and causes of preventable blindness in the area.
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