Vision Centres take vital eye care to heart of India’s poorest
Millions live too far from eye care services - and most cannot afford them.
About the project
Quality, primary eye care is coming to the heart of India’s communities in need - thanks to our project to bring ten Vision Centres to New Delhi.
With our partners Venu Charitable Society, our vision centres will give local access to eye care treatment for up to 50,000 people in the densely populated capital.
India has an estimated 15 million blind – and the highest number of blind children in the world. But up to 80% of this is blindness can be prevented or treated by simple surgery or prescription spectacles.
Recent studies show a shift in the trend of eye disease. Cataract continues to be a major cause of blindness. But other sight-threatening diseases - glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration - are major challenges. Millions suffer blindness because of a lack of quality, accessible eye care services.
Vision Centres provide sight-saving treatments to people in the heart of their communities. Screening for potentially blinding eye diseases, spectacles and further treatment referrals are also provided. Working as ‘satellites’ with base hospitals, Vision Centres mean we can reach and help more people in need. Venu currently has 22 peripheral centres in and around Delhi, linked to six secondary level eye hospitals in different districts.
By the end of this project, we will have:
- Provided 10 Vision Centres serving up to 50,000 people
- Helped people with for 80% of eye care needs
- Referred patients for further treatment to satellite hospitals.
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“...eye care service delivery still suffers from a major urban vs. rural divide....there is a lack of adequate primary eye care facilities. These fragmented efforts need to be linked together.”Mrs. Supriya Gupta, President, Venu Charitable Society
- PERIOD
- 2008 - 2010
- PARTNER
- Venu Charitable Society