Mumbai Eye Care Campaign, initiative of Sightsavers, Standard Chartered Bank and KBHB Eye Hospital is one of the major partner

The Mumbai Eye Care Campaign aims at providing comprehensive eye care services to the people living in the slums, particularly the most vulnerable within those groups, such as women and children. The project will also target key workers with a low socio-economic status such as Auto drivers, construction workers and domestic workers. The population of Mumbai is estimated to be 12.7 million and 49% of these people live in the slums of Greater Mumbai.

Mumbai eye care campaign for the next 5 years will work towards raising eye health awareness amongst the population of Mumbai and establishing quality and affordable refractive error services through community based organisations and hospital partners. The campaign will also focus on creating awareness about rights of visually challenged, finding main streaming opportunities for them and providing services through networking with existing organisations.

The Mumbai Eye Care Campaign will focus on developing refractive error services for the Mumbai District, specifically in slums areas such as four slum pockets in Shivaji Nagar, Mankhurd, Trombay, Govandi, Chembur, Antophill, Wadala, Kurla, Dharavi, Bandra, Kandivali, and Andheri. These all the vision centres were managed by K. B. Haji Bachooali Hospital and Lotus College of Optometry.

Goal –

The overall goal of the Mumbai Urban CEC Campaign is to contribute to reducing avoidable blindness in Mumbai, specifically targeting the growing problem of uncorrected refractive error.

Objectives –

·         To work towards raising eye health awareness amongst poor urban population of Mumbai – 10 million people.

·         To facilitate the establishment of vision centres and refractive error services by working in close association with the community, governments and other service providers

·         To involve the private sector and other NGOs in order to sustain RE services

·         To train Low Vision personal and help set up Low vision centres

·         To develop and strengthen human resources and capacities

·         To conduct Research studies on various aspects of refractive services.

Vision Centre –

The Vision centre works as the heart of campaign. An integral part of VC is trained health workers who will visit door to door for screening and identity people with eye problems and refer them to VC for check up and treatment. At the VCs a team of trained qualified optometrists will screen people for refractive errors, and dispense spectacles. Persons requiring further treatment will be referred to the hospital. All the surgeries and treatment will be done free of cost.

Services provided through Vision Centres –

• Free of Cost Door to Door screening by the trained Health Workers
• Free of cost examination at Vision centre on specified days
• Provide quality spectacles as per patients’ choice for Rs.25 only
• Free of cost examination at KBHB eye Hospital to the referred patients
• Other treatment like low vision devices, surgery or medicine is free of cost to the patients.
• Awareness generation of eye care by pamphlets, posters, flexes, standees and personal counselling

 

Activities of MEC –

                               

v  Awareness generation among general population by street play, door to door visits, meetings, poster exhibitions, pamphlet distribution

v  To train volunteers, health workers, CBOs, NGOs and others in eye care

v  Door to door screening by the trained health workers

v  Examination at vision centre those who need further care

v  Spectacle disbursement within Rs. 25/-

v  Counselling to the patients who need further check up in the base hospital for surgery

v  Regular follow up of the referred patients to the centre and also of cataract patients by home visits

v  Collection of data for the research at vision centre and home visits

v  Organise various special camps in different slums

v  Organise event and special focused group screening program like Dabbawala association, rag pickers, beggers, police, domestic workers etc.