World Sight Day is just three days away! To mark the occasion, we’re holding a public celebration event in Kanapur, a village located in Telangana State, India. The village will be declared avoidable blindness free!
What does this mean? It means that anyone in the village who was suffering from unnecessary blindness, or was at risk of going blind due to preventable causes, will have been treated. Thanks to our incredible donors, an entire village will be set free of avoidable blindness. Thank you!
A comprehensive door-to-door survey was conducted to identify those at risk of losing their eyesight. Trained community health workers from the local community visited over 230 houses and surveyed 1,185 people in the village. They identified 140 people with different eye problems and 17 people suffering from blindness.Thirty patients who required surgical treatment were transported to Operation Eyesight partner St. Gregorios Balagram Eye Hospital, where they underwent high-quality eye surgery. All 30 patients have been re-examined to ensure their vision recovery is on track.All but two people identified have been transported to the hospital for treatment. In the next three days leading up to World Sight Day, the two remaining patients will undergo treatment.Screening programs were conducted, and 288 people underwent an eye examination. As a result, 41 pairs of prescription eyeglasses were dispensed to those with refractive error. Community health workers will conduct one more screening program in advance of World Sight Day to encourage all community members to have their vision checked.Community health workers conducted 60 health awareness events to educate the village on topics such as eye health, general health, infectious diseases, malnutrition and immunization. Over 1,200 community members participated in the events.
Our mission to eliminate avoidable blindness on a sustainable basis from Kanapur aligns with this year’s World Sight Day theme, “No More Avoidable Blindness.” In fact, our proposal to hold a public celebration event in Kanapur was recently awarded the Innovation Excellence Award by Vision 2020 India, a national eye health advocacy group that has endorsed our Hospital-Based Community Eye Health Program in India.
We don’t just talk about eliminating avoidable blindness; we’re doing it. And we look forward to celebrating our achievements – made possible by our generous donors – on World Sight Day!
World Sight Day is just three days away! To mark the occasion, we’re holding a public celebration event in Kanapur, a village located in Telangana State, India. The village will be declared avoidable blindness free!
