Mumbai, Maharashtra, India:  Mission for Vision reached a new milestone with the launch of its 100^th Vision Centre under its Mission Jyot programme. True to its goal of reaching out to remote underserved regions, the Vision Centre was inaugurated at Jasra, Prayagraj District of Uttar Pradesh with the collective efforts of Mission for Vision, Standard Chartered Bank and Shri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust. With Uttar Pradesh having a higher prevalence of blindness and visual impairment, Jasra was a natural choice towards setting up a primary eye care facility in this region. This centre is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, which will cater to the surrounding population of over 50,000 people, ensuring early interception and treatment to prevent avoidable blindness in the region.

To address the vital concern of availability and accessibility of quality eye care, the Mission Jyot initiative by Mission for Vision is aimed at establishing Vision Centres in remote parts of the country. With collaboration at the crux of its values, these Vision Centres are established in partnership with leading eye hospital partners.

Vision Centres act as primary eye care facilities that offer services by trained optometrists or vision technicians at affordable rates and this globally proven model is in complete synchrony with the integrated people-centred eye care (IPEC) approach, as recommended by the World Health Organization in its “World report on vision”. As per this report, at least 2.2 billion individuals around the globe have a vision impairment, of whom at least 1 billion have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or is yet to be addressed. To make matters worse, unaddressed distance vision impairment in many low- and middle-income regions is 4x higher in comparison to high-income regions.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Jagdish M Chanrai, Founder, Mission for Vision shared, “This historic landmark in Mission for Vision’s journey takes us closer to the goal of ending avoidable sight-loss and delivering quality eye care for all. With direct connections between eye health services and the Sustainable Development Goals, the establishment of these Vision Centres play a crucial role. These Vision Centres will strengthen the eye health network in remote regions and significantly contribute towards the global integrated people-centred eye care implementation process.”

Ms Elizabeth Kurian, CEO, Mission for Vision elucidated, “The pandemic has shown the world the importance of healthcare facilities closer to our homes. Through the establishment of this 100^th Vision Centre, we have taken a huge leap towards providing comprehensive high quality primary eye care closer to these communities, cutting across economic and social disparities.” She further added, “On this momentous occasion, we would like to extend our deepest appreciation to all our partners and donors who have supported the Mission Jyot programme and have provided further fillip towards improving access to eye care and elimination of needless blindness.”

The Vision Centres’ services include comprehensive eye examination, refraction services, spectacle dispensing and referral services for other eye health issues. Every Vision Centre employs one or two Community Health Workers (CHWs) from the adjacent villages and most CHWs come from socio-economically challenged backgrounds. Apart from providing employment opportunities for these communities, hiring CHWs helps significantly in adequate awareness creation and eye health education in the community.