New vision centres to provide sight-saving eye care in rural India

Four new Vision Centres will provide sight-saving eye health services to people in one of the poorest parts of India, thanks to support from L’Occitane Foundation (open link in new tab), the foundation run by natural beauty products company L’Occitane.  The first two new centres opened in rural Uttar Pradesh in April and May, with two more due to open soon.

It is estimated that 11 million Indians are blind – one third of all blind people in the world. In the majority of cases, blindness could be avoided if eye health conditions are identified and treated in time. But for many people in India, particularly those living in poorer rural areas, sight-saving health services are out of reach.

The new Vision Centres will provide basic eye health services such as glasses, while also identifying potentially blinding conditions like cataracts and glaucoma so they can be treated before it’s too late.

New technology will help link patients with medical teams at eye hospitals hundreds of miles away. For example, specialist doctors will be able to examine a patient at the Vision Centre via video link to establish whether they need to travel to the hospital for treatment, or send a prescription for medication directly to the Centre.

People living with blindness or visual impairment in rural India often have no access to eye health services. The new Centres developed by CBM and our local partner Dr Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, with support from the L’Occitane Foundation, are expected to provide eye health services to over 65,000 people in the next five years.

Images: Top – the first Vision Centre opened in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh on April 17, 2018.  Bottom – the first eye examinations taking place at the Vision Centre in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.