Usha Kiran Charitable Trust

Usha Kiran Eye Hospital (UKEH) was established in 1995 on a rented premise in Mysore, a tier 2 city in South India. With the objective to serve the d Read moreown-trodden in the community, the promoters of UKEH Dr K.V.Ravishankar, FRCS (Edin) and Dr Uma Ravishankar FRCS (Edin) established Usha Kiran Charitable Trust (UKCT) in 1998 to provide free professional services to those who cannot afford the cost of treatment. As the number of free patients for consultation and treatment increased exponentially within five years of establishing UKCT, the promoters approached G K Charities to support building a strong Community Ophthalmology infrastructure. Thus, UKEH moved into their own Four-storied building in 2005.  The poor patients are identified through Outreach camps conducted within a 100 Kms radius of the base hospital at Mysore in the nearby districts of Chamarajnagar, Mandya, and Coorg apart from Mysore. The patients identified for cataract surgery or any other eye-related problems are brought to the base hospital at Mysore and dropped back after 1 or 2 days of surgery to their respective villages depending on their post-operative conditions. Thus, during the period 1998 to 2013 lot of free cataract surgeries were done at UKEH. However, with more players entering the community ophthalmology arena for performing Cataract surgeries, UKEH shifted their focus to the increased need for Children's eye care in 2012. A school screening program was established and children coming from economically backward families were provided with spectacles for refraction and surgeries were performed for early cataracts, drooping eyes, and squint (Table giving details annexed). Apart from extending professional services to the community in their region on a pro-bono basis, promoters of UKEH also extended to the communities in Underdeveloped/developing countries like Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, The Gambia and Zambia. Though initially, they were performing cataract surgeries in these countries, during the last five years, the focus has been on children's surgeries, as there is a severe shortage of trained ophthalmologists in this domain – Paediatric Community Ophthalmology Summary of Screening, consultations and surgeries done during the last 21 years of UKCT’s existence in proportion to paid ones, highlight the passion of promoters of UKEH to serve the community is attached.    While updating knowledge and skills on a continuous basis to keep abreast with changing technologies and techniques, the promoters of UKEH also ensured to work along with other International and National Non-government Organisations to fulfil the passion to serve the under-served. This called for constant communication with these NGOs both in terms of providing the required data/information, as well as providing them with the reports of treatment.