India’s leading eye care institute Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH) and the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services, have inaugurated a dedicated centre for their ongoing initiative, Project Prakash.

A successful collaboration between India and the United States (US) since 2005, Project Prakash aims at bringing light into the lives of curably blind children while simultaneously engaging in fundamental scientific research which explains how the brain develops and learns to see.

Since 2006, all surgical treatments are conducted at Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital in Delhi, ensuring the highest standards of care and science. The new centre inaugurated at SCEH will provide both organisations a space to advance research and implement community screening programmes.

The Project Prakash Centre was inaugurated by Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs (OGA), US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) in the presence of Dr Michael Chiang, Director, National Eye Institute (NEI).

Project Prakash is an initiative wherein children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 22 years are treated for bilateral congenital cataracts. Through cataract removal surgeries and interocular lens implantations, their qualitative or functional vision improves tremendously and the quantitative vision is restored 40 to 60 percent. Over the last 18 years, through Project Prakash, 62,000 children have been screened, 800+ children have been provided surgery and 30 children have been provided education and vocational rehabilitation.