Empower women in rural India to combat blindness

The Jiti Foundation Fall 2021 Report
By Lucy Gorham - Project Leader

A Class of Certified Opthalmic Paramedic Students Completes an Exam under Covid-19 Precautions

Once again, we would like to thank our GlobalGiving donors for their incredible support of our work empowering young women and fighting blindness during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis in India. We’re happy to report that, despite the considerable challenges, the Certified Opthalmic Paramedics (COP) training program has continued to recruit, train, and graduate students at Dr. Schroff's Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH) in Delhi and find placements for them to launch their careers.  Since its inception, more than 600 young women, mostly belonging to underprivileged sectors of society, have been recruited to this program for acquiring the skills needed to manage key roles in an eye hospital and/or rural vision center.

The COPs have been instrumental in supporting SCEH to achieve the target of screening around 500,000 people in our network in a year, including those at the vision centers. Almost 70 percent of these patients are examined free of cost or for a very minimal fee. Even with the constraints of COVID-19, over the past year spanning 2020-21, approximately 27,000 surgeries were completed and the vision centers screened more than 90,000 patients.

The Jiti Foundation is also excited to announce that the generous contributions of our donors has enabled us to work with Dr. Schroff’s Charity Eye Hospital to launch two new initiatives:

1)      The establishment of the Mahender S. Gill scholars program that will cover the full two year program costs for two COP students each year, including tuition, room and board, textbooks, and a stipend, thus allowing young women from the most economically disadvantaged families to enroll; and

2)      The launch of two new vision clinics at Dr. Schroff’s Charity Eye Hospital in Delhi that are specifically designed to deepen the training that COP graduates receive and allow them to further specialize in one of four areas: ophthalmic assistant, vision technician, patient educator, and medical record assistants.  The new clinics will also expand the ability of the vision hospital to serve the needs of poor patients in Delhi and surrounding areas.

To get an understanding of how important this ongoing support is for these young women, we want to introduce you to two more COP trainees and graduates. 

Geeta graduated from the COP program and is now employed as an Opathalmic Technician. Geeta entered the program as a quiet and shy person who has transformed into a confident and smiling person. She went on a mission to Botswana where she provided technical support to a team working to reduce the burden of cataracts.  Being able to travel abroad and assist others in a foreign country was a wish come true which she never dreamed could happen.

Mahima hails from Saharanpur where she has 4 siblings. Her father works as a driver. She wanted to become a doctor and help others. Fortunately she got a chance to enroll for the COP program. She is a confident girl. Recently her father passed away and she feels that, being an elder sister, it’s her responsibility to take care of her mother and siblings.  Her career in eye care will enable her to provide for them.

Looking ahead to 2022, we anticipate the opening of two new rural clinics that are already on the drawing board.  In the meantime, we thank you for providing a lifeline to our COP graduates and their communities during a time when access to vision care has been exceedingly difficult.