OUR FIELD LEVEL SERVICES:

The trust has been proactive in organizing free eye check-ups for various ocular diseases like refractory errors, squint, etc. The main aim is to bring awareness among people regarding eye disorders and their early detection. Till date we have screened approximately 16400 children from various schools in Thane and Mumbai.

The organization takes special interest in promoting eye donation.

3 year recap of activities

FIELD PROJECTS

• Children’s Refractive Error and Eye Ailment Management (CREAM) Project.
• Mumbai Diabetic Retinopathy Study-Retinopathy, Awareness Level, Incidence Prevalence and Therapy (REALITY) Project.
• Our Pilot Programme Output

Children’s Refractive Error and Eye Ailment Management (CREAM) Project:

India is a country of 1.2 billion people. Over 25 percent of this population is of school going age (6-14 years). Refractive errors and amblyopia (lazy eye disease) are the commonest and serious eye diseases (153 million patients as estimated by WHO, 2006) in this age group. It affects nearly 7-12 % children in the community. Certainly it is more common in Urban area and in our pilot study on 15,000 children in the schools of Thane and Mumbai we have found prevalence rate of 20%.

Ironically 10% of these are either not recognized or not appropriately treated. The early detection and treatment of these eye diseases can very effectively prevent the visual impairment. The diagnosis of both these conditions is simple and the results of the treatment are dramatic.

As many as 10% of the children in the schools of Mumbai were found to have uncorrected refractive errors. This is because the children usually do not complain due to lack of recognition of their poor vision and lack of awareness amongst the parents or school teachers and lack of a regular vision screening strategy. This is precisely why only a handful of cases are detected at an early stage where appropriate treatment is helpful. The affordability of the spectacles is also an issue for socio-economically deprived class of students.

The CREAM project is aimed at delivering eye care services to this group and creating eye health awareness amongst the school teachers.

This screening project is designed to meet the following objectives :

• To detect eye diseases in children before they can damage their vision irreversibly
• Increase the awareness about eye diseases in children among the teachers and the parents.

OUR PILOT PROGRAM output:

Duration: 2 year
Location: Thane, Mumbai,
Objectives:

• School Screening
• Awareness
• Free Treatment

Beneficiaries:

• 35 Schools
• 17,036 Children
• 32 free Paediatric surgeries

MUMBAI DIABETIC RETINOPATHY, AWARENESS LEVEL, INCIDENCE PREVALENCE AND THERAPY (REALITY) RESEARCH PROJECT:



India faces a serious health care burden due to high prevalence of Diabetes; Prevalence of Diabetes in India is expected to increase from 31.4 to 79.4million in 2030.The disturbing fact is that majority of diabetics would be at a younger age. Diabetes related blindness which was 17th in the cause of blindness has risen to 6th position.A person with Diabetes has 25%more chance of going blind than a non- diabetic To meet this challenging health-economic burden of society, Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital Pvt. Ltd. through its charitable wing Aditya Jyot Foundation for Twinkling Little Eyes has embarked on a major screening, epidemiologic, and research project (Mumbai Diabetic REALITY Project ) A dream project of Dr. S. Natarajan to combat diabetic related blindness in urban slums in Mumbai and to increase awareness among the poor in urban slums of Dharavi (Asia’s largest slum), Naigaon, Chembur, Govandi, & districts of Thane and Raigad. Screening camps will be conducted in same areas with emphasis to detect and treat Diabetic Retinopathy at the earliest. This is a population based cross sectional study conducted in an urban slum called Dharavi (largest slum in Asia), Naigaon, Chembur, Govandi Districts of Thane and Raigad, India.

The objectives of our proposed study are to determine the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in urban slums of Mumbai, Thane and Raigad districts of Maharastra. The slums have a majority of people who have migrated from rural areas.The change in dietary habits and sedentary lifestyle coupled with gross ignorance is contributing to an increase in diabetes.The districts of Thane and Raigad have a combination of urban and rural population in a ratio of 3:2.We plan to evaluate the level of awareness,screen, counsel and treat Diabetes and its vision threatening complication-Diabetic Retinopathy.The idea is to increase awareness about the disease ,in order to encourage attendance to Screening Camps.Early detection of Diabetic Retinopathy will facilitate early intervention and this will prevent eyes from going blind.

We will be Screening around I5,000-16,000 patients out of approximately 40-50 lakhs people of Mumbai Slums,Districts of Thane and Raigad in 5 years.As the incidence of Diabetic Retinopathy is around 1-2 % according to our Pilot Project at Dharavi(Asia’s Largest Slum),this will be a Practical and Feasible target.


OUR PILOT PROGRAMME OUTPUT

We have conducted pilot studies at Dharavi, where we screened a population of 1100 over a period of 7 months from July 2007 to January 2008 for presence of Diabetes and Diabetic retinopathy using random blood sugar and dilated fundus examination. We achieved our target by conducting camps with the help of local NGOs. This Pilot Study indicated an occurrence of 13.8.5% Diabetes mellitus out of which 1.6% was detected with diabetic retinopathy.

For patients, who require investigations/ treatment, such as Fundus Fluorescein Angiography (FFA) and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), visual fields, electro retinogram, cataract surgery, Laser treatment or vitreous surgery, we refer them to our main hospital and the required services are rendered totally free of cost.

We also provide educational material to patients, to create awareness about eye care, and eye diseases.

Beneficiaries:

More than 8,500 Patients
More than 2000 Free Cataract Surgeries Done.