AKHAND JYOTI EYE HOSPITAL

Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital (AJEH) started with a mission to eliminate curable blindness from the BIMARU states - the perennial laggards and low-income states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan & Uttar Pradesh. Starting with Bihar (the weakest state), the first goal of AJEH is to make the state blind free by 2022. The differentiator is our work model - we eradicate blindness by empowering women in the process. It is our strong belief that we are not merely an eye hospital but a platform for ushering bigger societal change in local communities. Our approach to specifically target and reach out to the poor, blind patient from rural areas has made us the third largest eye hospital in India, and in just a few years, we have shown that by sticking to our primary aim of eradicating blindness, we can also: 1. Offer comprehensive, high-quality eye care with specialized services for cataract, retina, children’s eye care, glaucoma & cornea. 2. Build up a successful teaching eye hospital in the rural heartland. 3. Educate and train girls from rural Bihar to become highly skilled optometrists / ophthalmic personnel at the hospital. Manpower, which for us is WOMANPOWER, is crucial to ensure that the primary aim of eradicating blindness is met. AJEH has a principled stand of deploying girls to take up at least two-thirds of the workforce and become future leaders and role models in the Bihari society. Initially using football as an icebreaker in a male dominated society, the Education through Football program morphed into a major initiative to create girl role models at the local level. AJEH provides sight-restoring surgery to over 65,000 patients, 80% free, and treats more than 300,000 people every year and sponsoring more than 120 girls from rural Bihar drives this work. Over the next 5 years, AJEH plans to start 5 new surgical centers, establish the world's first Centre of Excellence in eye care in a rural area and develop 30 vision centres