CBI Update: Bijayananda Patnaik Eye Center, Keonjhar, India
Combat Blindness International established the Bijayananda Patnaik Eye Center last year in Keonjhar, Odisha in partnership with the Bijayananda Patnaik Family, the Jack DeLoss Taylor Charitable Trust and L.V. Prasad Eye Institute. Odisha is one of the poorest states in India with a blindness rate nearly double the national average. The city of Keonjhar has a population of 1.8 million and the closest eye center is located in Bhubaneshwar, which is 220 kilometers away.
Since its opening in March 2018, the Bijayananda Patnaik Eye Center has screened 2,130 children and distributed 51 pairs of glasses. They’ve screened 13,205 adults and provided 315 cataract surgeries.One such patient is Jatani Patra, who visited Bijayananda Patnaik Eye Center in March of 2018. Her vision had diminished over the course of 2 years and was negatively affecting her quality of life. She couldn’t go up or down stairs by herself and was having trouble reading her medication bottles. She received her cataract surgery free of charge and her vision was completely restored. Jatani is very happy to be able to see clearly again. She expressed enormous gratitude to the donors from CBI who helped support her surgery.