Since 1963, we’ve been working to prevent blindness and restore sight in India, where nearly 15 million people are blind or visually impaired. We serve communities in 84 districts within 15 states of India, networking with more than 31 partner hospitals and 114 vision centers. We’re working with our partners to address common eye conditions such as cataract, uncorrected refractive error, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. Together we’re creating access to affordable eye health care services in some of India’s most remote areas, and empowering communities to take ownership of their eye health care needs.  

Our work in India falls into four thematic programming areas: Health System Strengthening, Vision Centres, Community Eye Health, and Maternal and Child Health.

Health System Strengthening:

We collaborate with hospital and government partners to ensure that hospitals have the resources necessary to provide quality eye health care, and to integrate eye health care into the primary health care system. We build the capacity of hospitals, increase human resources and implement referral linkages within existing systems.

In 2013, the eye health advocacy group Vision 2020 India endorsed our model of Hospital-Based Community Eye Health as a best practice, encouraging all Indian hospitals to adopt our model. In many cases, our partnership with hospitals involves our unique Non-Financial Technical Partnership. In this partnership, our skilled staff offer expert advice, training and evaluation instead of financial assistance. We’ve found that this is the best way to encourage our partners to provide quality, sustainable services.

In 2015, with the help of a generous donor family, we opened the Operation Eyesight Universal Institute for Eye Cancer at the L V Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India.

Vision Centres:

Vision centres are permanent facilities that are established in strategic locations and staffed by trained eye health personnel. They act as a link between communities and our partner hospitals, providing eye exams, dispensing prescription eyeglasses and referring patients to the hospital for treatment as needed. Our vision centres typically become financially self-sustaining within a few months of their establishment. This is done through a cost-recovery model where revenue generated through the sale of eyeglasses and from patients who can afford to pay for services helps offset the cost for those who cannot afford to pay.

Community Eye Health:

Typically, sustainability is looked at from the “supply side” (service provision) and rarely through the “demand side” (generating need in the target area). At Operation Eyesight, we look at sustainability from both of these perspectives. Through our Hospital-Based Community Eye Health Programs, we train and employ women as community health workers (CHWs). The CHWs conduct door-to-door surveys, identify those with eye health issues, and refer patients to a vision centre or appropriate facility for treatment. They also conduct extensive heath education sessions in the community to increase the knowledge and awareness of eye health. All of these strategies help empower communities to take ownership of their eye health, which addresses the “demand side” of sustainability.

Maternal and Child Health:

Through our community outreach programs, we address the root causes of avoidable blindness. Community health workers educate families about nutrition, immunization, newborn care, prenatal and postnatal care and other health issues.

In 2020, we opened a Retinopathy of Prematurity clinic to provide screening and treatment for infants.

Success stories from India:

A mother’s restored vision inspires her daughter to help others

A family transformed thanks to a simple pair of eyeglasses

Eyeglasses help makes dreams a reality