The incidence of blindness is the highest in the Northeastern Region of the country. Blindness is more prevalent among the economically underprivileged villagers. The infrastructural facilities for eye care in villages of the Northeastern Region are very scanty. The huge backlog of cataract patients is causing a negative impact on the regional economy. Cataract blindness is curable. After surgery, near normal vision and restoration of near total quality of life is possible. To eliminate this needless blindness, the practice of community ophthalmology service is well known and well established in India but unfortunately, in Northeast India, there is no institution for community ophthalmology where service as well as development of Human Resources on this subspecialty can be undertaken on a regular basis. The National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) of Govt. of India has noted that the Northeastern part of the country is under-served and there is immediate need for increasing the performance by 100%; otherwiseblindness will be a major health problem in Northeastern States. The survey shows that about 40% of the population needs some type of eye treatment at any point of time. The per capita income of the local inhabitants is far below the national average. Hence, a huge number of eye patients continue to suffer either for non-availability of appropriate treatment or for economic reason.

AJMAL FOUNDATION is involved with aiding the poor and needy patients, who are in urgent need of eye cataract treatment. It provides monetary support on a regular basis to such patients. The affected patients are treated at Haji Abdul Majid Memorial hospital and Research Centre (HAMM RC), a part of AJMAL CSR, located in Hojai.

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Why is it so urgent?

The team of AJMAL FOUNDATION comes across many people who are suffering from eye cataract problem. Most of the people are suffering from low or blurred vision too. To take stock of the situation and to share the agonies of the helpless people our team takes initiative to survey the rural areas and some of the nearby Hospitals including Haji Ajmal Ali Memorial Hospital & Research Centre. After interaction with the ailing people, the team observes that the affected people cannot go for costly medical treatments, mainly because of their poverty and lack of medical facilities. Many a times, the patient needs to travel more than 1000 km to avail the treatment.  In most of the cases, the only bread earner of the family is affected and resulted to augment the agony of the entire family.

How will we do it?

It is seen that many people suffer from illnesses related to the eye throughout the countryand north east especially. People from various sections of the society approach the AJMAL FOUNDATION for monetary support to treat their illness. AJMAL FOUNDATION receives applications from many needy patients from across the state of Assam and outside. The affected person are shortlisted and selected by AJMAL FOUNDATION, provides them monetary support and sends them to HAMM RC for treatment.

Project Evaluation

Project Coordinators guide the family of the patients on how to utilize the funds received. They are provided with the knowledge on eye cataract, its causes and the ways to prevent it. The coordinators track each and every patient’s progress on a regular basis.

What have we done in the past?

AJMAL FOUNDATION successfully carried out eye cataract treatment project in the past for the financially backward section of the society. The project enabled the people who were in need of eye cataract treatment avail the services at a lower cost. The same treatment is unfortunately very expensive in other commercial hospitals. Although the treatment is available at HAMMH RC, the affected patients often needed to avail the treatment on an urgent basis, thus creating a need for a large sum of money. AJMAL FOUNDATION provided financial assistance to these patients. This project was carried out in 2016 and 2017, benefitting 360 patients.

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