Spotlight India

Our work in India began at the beginning of September 2017 in the state of Odisha. The decision for this location was made by our partner Care Netram, with the dedicated entrepreneur Prashant Pachisia. He runs both a training company and a temporary employment agency and had been looking for a suitable project in which he wanted to make a social contribution for some time.

Odisha is located on the Bay of Bengal and, with its 43 million inhabitants, is one of the poorest states in India. One third of the capital Bhubaneshwar consists of slums. third of its population are slums. The training center that Prashant runs there is for young people from socially disadvantaged families. Over 80 percent of the young people find a job after completing their training. A remarkable success, in our opinion.

Since the start of our operations in 2017, we have provided around 25,000 people with glasses and carried out over 72,000 eye tests in total by mid-2020. The team already consists of around 60 employees at this point. In 2019, night eye camps and home visits were successfully introduced and medical treatment for over 300 cataract patients was made possible.

Our eye camps are often attended by patients with cataracts, who are almost or completely blind due to the clouding of the lens. They cannot be helped with glasses. We make sure that these patients are operated on. We organize buses to take them to the partner clinic and then back home again. This is done on the day of the operation and then on the following day for the final examination. A logistical challenge that pays off. By 2020, 300 people had already received an operation in this way.