Empower women in rural India to combat blindness

Hello Jiti Foundation supporters!

While summer starts to slip away in North America, monsoon season continues on in Uttar Pradesh, where the Jiti Foundation's clinics are located, bringing much appreciated relief from the heat.

Firstly, we wanted to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to our supporters, who during our recent July Bonus Day campaign, allowed us to raise a total of $2,720 - with $1,900 from our supporters, and an amazing $820 in matching funds! Your support during these matching campaigns extends your donation further, allowing us to increase our impact on achieving women's empowerment through eye care in Uttar Pradesh. 

The vision and eye care centers that the Jiti Foundation funds are critical infrastructure for community eye health. And thanks to your continued support, they are stable fixtures of healthcare structure - fostering ongoing trust and community buy in. Studies also show that this stability is critical when compared to services in common temporary pop-up health clinics and camps, especially for women seeking care. By increasing healthcare utilization and bridging existing gaps in access to care, this work continues to serve Jiti's dual goals to empower women and achieve gender equity. 

When Jiti collaborates with our trusted partner, Dr. Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital, to build eye clinics, they are by design intended to achieve self-sufficiency for ongoing sustainability. We monetarily support these newly built clinics for several years to get them off the ground and established in their communities, but they are quickly able to be self-supporting through the services they offer. With this model, we can ensure that the precious trust built in these communities by the stable and constant presence of our clinics can continue to be depended on for years to come. 

By supporting our work, you are investing in years and years of eye care and employment opportunities for communities in need. Thank you for this gracious support!

Hello to all our valued supporters, and happy Spring! Lots of exciting things are in the works with the Jiti Foundation and our partner in India, Dr. Schrof’s Charity Eye Hospital. Something we deeply value about Dr. Schrof’s approach is that they do their very best to support as many young women in their training programs as possible, even as the program grows exponentially each year. Since 2016, more than 1200 young women have participated in the Certified Ophthalmic Paramedics (COP) training program, 500 of which were recruited just in this past year! It speaks to the need and interest that these women have in a meaningful livelihood, and the opportunity to support thier communities' health and well-being. Upon completing the program, these women are then placed in rural clinics in their local areas, providing not just eye care services, but serving as a frontline structure for many other medical and health needs. We are currently collaborating with Dr. Schrof’s to determine what other areas of training and education we can help to support, so we can build on the valuable infrastructure laid by the COP program to meet other vital healthcare needs. This will also allow the women in the program to have more flexibility in their career goals and greater employability, holding a wider range of skills and experiences. This builds on the program's current goals, as COPs who graduate from the existing program already have diverse skills in multiple areas. They play a critical role in health education by conducting counseling, motivation for medical adherence, and conducting follow-up care in the community. The COPs have also been instrumental in supporting eye health screenings, screening over 5,000,000 people in Dr. Schrof’s network of clinics since the program’s inception. 

We are excited to let you know how this develops, and to share the additional areas of support and impact we will be able to provide with your generous support. 

If you would like your support to go even further, consider making a donation during the GlobalGiving April Little x Little campaign! From April 3rd-7th, all eligible donations up to $50 USD per unique donor per organization will be matched at 50% for the duration of the campaign. Join us during this campaign, and your donation goes even further! Thank you for support!