PROGRAMMES

Research has revealed a high prevalence of refractive error among truck drivers. With visual impairment common among people over the age of 40, timely intervention can avert accidents and a lifetime of challenges for everyone on the road. Mission Disha proactively engages truckers and their support community to address the inherent strain on eyes that comes with prolonged driving through screening camps.

Retinoblastoma is a form of eye cancer affecting young children and babies. Each year, more than 8,000 new cases of retinoblastoma are diagnosed all around the world, of which a third (over 2,500) are diagnosed in India. Through the Mission Jeevan programme, Mission for Vision and its partners provide timely screening, counselling, financial aid, and treatment to children diagnosed with retinoblastoma along with creating awareness among medical practitioners and the masses.

Vision centres are small, permanent centres primary eye care clinics that offer services by trained optometrists and vision technicians at affordable rates. Services include comprehensive primary eye care, referral services, follow-up, adequate awareness creation and eye health education in the community.

Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is a critical condition leading to childhood blindness in India. Around 30% of the neonates in a neonatal intensive care units (NICU) can be affected with ROP and almost 10% of them can go completely blind if they don't reach an eye specialist within 30 days of birth and undergo laser treatment within 2 to 3 days of the diagnosis.

Among the major causes of visual impairment in those above the age of 50 years, 71% were due to cataract. In order to address the issue of cataract among socio-economically challenged communities, the Mission Netra programme provides timely eye health interventions. The programme enables high quality cataract surgeries and provides medicines, transportation, hospital stay and nutritious meals for individuals from marginalised communities, at no cost to the patient.

Blindness and visual impairment among children have long-term effects; particularly inhibiting a child’s ability to participate in and benefit from educational experiences, as 80% of learning is processed through the visual system. Mission Roshni strives to eradicate avoidable blindness among school children in government and government aided schools.

There is a gross lack of Allied Ophthalmic Personnel (AOP) in India and this is significantly hampering the delivery of quality eye care services and the battle against preventable and treatable blindness. To address this issue, Mission Saksham has embarked on a journey to train 2000 Allied Ophthalmic Personnel.

India has for over 26 million persons with disabilities of which almost 4% are aged 10-29. This section is accessing higher education, but access to equal and quality education remains a challenge. MFV works in partnership with the National Association for the Blind (NAB), India to promote inclusive education and reduce inequalities by strengthening the mathematical skills of children with blindness and low vision through Mission Shiksha.