Project Prakash Charitable Trust is an initiative to ensure all children in India living with curable blindness are provided the necessary surgical intervention and subsequetly appropriate education and vocational training opportunities to live a life of dignity.
The Prakash Model
Outreach
At the grassroots level in India, we conduct outreach camps that span hundreds of villages. Through these outreach efforts they also raise awareness about preventable blindness. During these outreach camps, we conduct screenings to identify ocular abnormalities and severe refractive errors. If a child requires outpatient care, such as corrective eyeglasses, we ensure they receive it immediately on-site at the screening camp. When children are diagnosed with specific forms of congenital cataract that require advanced treatment, we arrange for them to visit our partner hospital in Delhi. There, we oversee their surgical procedures and provide thorough post-surgical care, ensuring that each child receives the highest level of medical attention and support. These efforts are not without their challenges, as our team often encounters resistance from families living in these remote villages. However, our team engages in one-on-one conversations with family members, ultimately ensuring that every child receives the life-changing world-class care they deserve.
Treatment
Children with refractive errors receive corrective eye gear, while those requiring surgery are referred to our partner hospital, Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital in Delhi, renowned for its unwavering commitment to delivering high standards of care. Within our team, we are honored to have some of India’s most distinguished pediatric ophthalmologists, individuals whose passion and dedication to serving these children is unparalleled. Our comprehensive support for children encompasses transportation, lodging, pre-surgery counseling, medical care, surgical interventions, and post-surgery care. We fund the families of these children to accompany them from their villages to Delhi for treatment. Additionally, we provide facilities for them to stay together with their children, ensuring a nurturing and comforting environment throughout the treatment process.
Research
Education
Many children treated late for blindness face challenges in gaining admission to regular schools due to knowledge gaps or being overage. Traditional schools often lack the resources for visual rehabilitation or accelerated curricula for newly sighted children. To address this, we have initiated a residential education program for Prakash children. This program provides customized scholastic education to Prakash children while granting them access to the latest technology and devices designed for low-vision children.
Vocational Training
For older Prakash children, we have partnered with the Blind Relief Association in New Delhi to launch a comprehensive rehabilitation program. Here, our children acquire various vocational skills, enabling them to seek employment and become productive members of society, ultimately fostering financial independence.
Both of these organizations possess extensive expertise in their respective fields and have a proven track record of running successful programs for visually challenged children over many years. After receiving surgical treatment, Prakash children are presented with the opportunity to enroll in one of these institutions, with the selection based on their age and aptitude. This strategic collaboration allows us to provide tailored education and vocational training to best support the children’s growth and development.
Ongoing mentoring and counselling
The children we work with become an integral part of the extended Prakash family. Our support extends well beyond medical and financial assistance; we take on roles as parents, guides, counselors, and friends to these children, offering both material and non-material resources as they learn to navigate life with improved vision. Right from our interaction with children during outreach camps upto and beyond their admission in education and vocational institutes, we undertake mentoring and counseling sessions with children and their families spanning several years. Such counseling not only helps the families understand the available resources for their child but also provides the crucial assurance that the Project Prakash team will take full responsibility for the child’s well-being while they receive treatment or attend a partner organization’s program. This assurance is particularly vital, as parents often hesitate to leave their visually challenged daughters in Delhi while they return to their villages. Our consistent support aims to alleviate these concerns and ensure the children’s well-being and progress. Along with this, we provide financial support as well to address any gaps and assist with any other needs the child may have on their journey towards living an independent life.
Partners
To provide our children with world class treatment, finest education, vocational training, and access to top-notch resources and special educators, thus unlocking numerous possibilities and opportunities, we have forged partnerships with some of the foremost organizations in the realms of medical services, education, and vocational training for visually challenged children and youth in India. We want to express our sincere gratitude to our partners, without whom the impact we are having on our children wouldn’t be possible
