Eyesight awareness initiative by Joti foundation under "Vision Punjab"

Joti Foundation is a non – profit organization which came into existence in 2020 with the single pointed agenda of rendering selfless service to the human race in whichever way possible. The organization is dedicated to ensuring access of people living in the rural areas of the country to such facilities as would be instrumental in uplifting their standard of living. 

Since our inception, we have focused our energies on adopting multi sectoral approach viz. education, healthcare, disaster relief besides empowering differently abled people and are providing access of safe drinking water in the cancer hit regions of Punjab.

Vision Punjab

We believe that every child should have an equal opportunity to learn, grow and excel. Hence, under the aegis of the project ‘Vision Punjab’, we are making sure getting testing the eyesight of the children studying at government schools in Punjab and providing spectacles to those in need. The project currently is ongoing in three districts namely, Bathinda, Fazilka and Sri Muktsar Sahib and is being executed by the team of certified Optometrists who visit the government schools to conduct eye testing daily.

Over 2 lakh children have been screened

The total number of children which have been screened so far are over 2 lakh and we aim to test around 29 lakh children in next two years and provide spectacles to 4 to 5 lakh children. During this process we were able to identify many students who are nearly blind (having exceptionally low vision) and were not wearing spectacles due to lack of resources as their families survive on daily income of less than 4 USD per day and cannot afford either eye testing or spectacles. 

The organization also came face to face with the apathy towards this sensitive issue by parents at home and even by teachers in schools. Hence, under this project we also emphasize awareness generation for students and sensitization of government school teachers on low vision and its impact on a child’s ability to learn.