Our Global Director of International Programmes Dr. Ritu Ghosh, who recently joined VISION 2020’s board as Vice President, moderated and chaired three sessions during the conference.

Programme Manager Tapobrat Bhuyan and Project Officer Emmanuel Benia Tanti both made presentations, while Project Coordinator Aditya Sharma brought home the award for Best Paper for Oral Presentation, and Head of Resource Mobilization Subhadip Bhattacharya secured second place in the Best Poster competition.

Operation Eyesight was also honored with an award as a founding member for its contributions to VISION 2020. It was an inspiring event that underscored our collective commitment to improving vision health.

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Across India and Nepal, 15 partner hospitals marked their achievements in the elimination of avoidable blindness and raised awareness about eye health. Their biggest accomplishment? The declaration of a spectacular 281 avoidable blindness-free villages by eight hospitals. Wow!

Here’s what else they did:

• Inaugurated four Vision Centres. Two are from Fateh Bal Eye Hospital in Nepal and two from Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital Trust and the Sundarban Social Development Centre, both in India.
• Three hospitals in India conducted screening programs and dispensed eyeglasses in their project areas. They screen a total of 565 individuals, dispensed 58 pairs of prescription eyeglasses and referred 78 patients for eye surgery.
• Our partners at Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital Trust and the Vittala International Institute of Ophthalmology held rallies to increase education about eye health, which were well received.

Please take a moment and share in their warm glow of accomplishment. We wish you could have been there, but we’ll have to settle for a great big THANK YOU for making all this work possible.

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We’re thrilled to have been named one of the Top 10 Impact Charities of 2018 by Charity Intelligence Canada. Just as for-profit organizations have an obligation to their shareholders, we have an obligation to our donors. We invest donor funds carefully and efficiently to create the long-term changes that will help eliminate avoidable blindness.

This recognition is a significant milestone on our shared path to help more people who are needlessly suffering, and to make a generational impact that will ensure the communities we work in will have access to the eye care they need today, tomorrow and in the future.

Charity Intelligence’s impact rating is determined by analyzing the measurable return for every dollar donated. They hold charities accountable for the support they receive from Canadian donors, and they observe that people will generally give more to charities when they are confident their donation will make an impact. Operation Eyesight made the list by eliminating avoidable blindness at the community level, through our Hospital-Based Community Eye Health Program model.

When assessing our impact, we look at how well we are meeting our strategic goals. We look at the number of patients treated, how much local capacity is being built and how well our hospital partners are progressing towards operational sustainability.

We create eye health-seeking behaviour in the communities we work in through outreach and education programs, and we empower communities to take responsibility for their eye health needs. This plays a vital role in helping to ensure our projects are sustainable and that people will continue to seek help even after our formal partnership with the hospital has ended.

The ripple effect is incredible! Kids can see to read and go to school, giving them the opportunity to get an education and later find a job and provide for themselves. Parents can return to work and provide for their families. Grandparents can watch their grandkids grow up, and their grandkids don’t need to stay home to care for them. This way, children can get an education and thrive in the future. Entire communities are transformed with the gift of sight!

We can’t thank our donors enough for supporting our sight-saving program model. Thanks to people like you, we’ve declared over 1,000 villages avoidable blindness-free in India and Nepal. And we’re not done yet! We’ve had great success in the communities we work in, but there are still millions of people who need our help. With your help, we can reach them – For All The World To See!

 Click here to donate and make an IMPACT.

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During September, Aly will be visiting our project countries to meet with our international team and participate in 30 days of jam-packed activities, including inaugurating a vision centre, visiting an avoidable blindness-free village, touring some of our partner hospitals and participating in meetings with our staff, partners and eye health colleagues.

With so much ahead, we’re eager to follow Aly’s travels on social media, as he’ll be tweeting live updates when he can. Follow him on Twitter to stay up-to-date!

Aly will be representing our Canadian team and donors during his travels. “This trip is an opportunity for me to communicate the gratitude of our Calgary team and all our donors to our international teams for the work they do,” he says. “And also to connect our Calgary team with our international teams and strengthen the bonds between us.”

But this trip won’t just be business for Aly. “On a personal level, I’m representing my family. This is a chance for my parents and grandparents to give back to our home country through me. I haven’t been back to East Africa since moving to Edmonton with my family as refugees when I was two years old.” Aly says he’ll be carrying his family history with him as he sets foot on home soil for the first time in years, and it will be an emotional return for him.

We asked Aly what he hopes to leave behind and what he hopes to bring back to Canada…

“What I hope to leave with our international teams is a connection to me, to our Calgary office, so they know that we’re more than just distant names and titles. There’s a fire we share, and we can relate to each other through our mutual passion. 

What I hope to gain and bring back is the ability to absorb my experience and harness it as motivation for myself and for our Calgary office, our supporters and volunteers. I want to inspire them, so they know that together we can achieve more – do more to make our mission to eliminate avoidable blindness a reality.”

Aly is looking forward to seeing our work first-hand for the first time.

“I’ll be experiencing the outcomes of the work we do, seeing the results of our team’s hard work and dedication, and seeing the work that our donors have made possible. I want to empower our international staff, and I hope to let them know that they have my full support to continue doing the work they’re doing.

I also want to build new partnerships and strengthen existing partnerships. I want to let the world know that Operation Eyesight is making serious strides towards accomplishing our mission. And to do that, I’m going to challenge our stakeholders – our allies, volunteers, donors – to rally behind us and scale up with us, so we can reach more people in need and make an even greater impact.”

Is this outside of Aly’s comfort zone? He says that yes, it absolutely is – but that’s just how he wants it.

“I want to get a little uncomfortable. I grew up with a western perspective, so at times I’m going to be uncomfortable with what I see and hear and smell. It will all be unfamiliar and different. Communicating will be difficult, which means I’m going to be vulnerable. It will be an emotional time, and I need to be okay with that.”

We wish Aly all the best on his travels. There will be so much we can learn from his experience, and we’re all looking forward to hearing his stories and sharing them with you, our supporters.

Stay tuned to our blog and social media for more updates from Aly throughout September. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter so you don’t miss an update.

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