Notes from the Chair: Dr. Vinay Nangia
Seventeen years in Service and Science.
Suraj Eye Institute still stays a humble and somewhat small organisation, from the point of view of its infrastructure. However, we did okay. We worked hard, and we did things and went where none had gone before with the limited assets we had, and we are happy about it. As a non profit foundation we stuck to our ideals over time.
From welcoming ladies to our hospital, who could not afford eye care, to reaching out to 1.2 million people in the slums of Nagpur, and to many thousands of villages in Central India gave us a high.
The Institute took on things a little larger than itself and managed to put it in action. We took on the responsibility in affiliation with Heidelberg University to do the Central India Eye and Medical Study and completed it nicely with over 50 international publications from it.
We worked with ORBIS International on a paediatric eye care program and reached out to almost 150,000 children in and around Nagpur. The first paediatric eye care unit took shape at our Institute.
The Institute developed a residency program under the National Board of Examiners In addition we trained a number of fellows in glaucoma and cataract.
One of the main objectives is always to upgrade. We did that very much with the help of the Rotary Club s’Hertogenbosch. They helped us build the hospital, and equip the hospital. This was a big development that led us on the path to excellence and to be acknowledged as a leader in this area. They also supported the paediatric outreach and the cataract surgery project and created an ecosystem of supporters that continued to support us in our mission of eye care.
The Challenges have been immense and continue to be so. To stay relevant year after year in a fast changing country and health care scenario needs energy and good will. Both of them stay relevant in helping us reach the – Goal of Sight – from moment to moment.
I would like to thank everyone who gave himself to the cause in and from out of the Suraj Eye Institute. It is simple to understand, that we could not have travelled without all who worked at the Institute and all who supported us in more ways than I can recount.
With each passing year we sit down and think of who we will be in the next few years.
New plans have been made to bring many changes to the infrastructure and the operating rooms, to bring in more equipment, increase the size of the team and improve the qualty of eye care, and augment and fine tune the models of community eye reach, so that the city and its surroundings can sense the effort and taste the benefits.
Last and not least, we have acquired 175000 sq. feet of land in MIHAN. We felt that if we had to increase our eye reach to a larger extent, it was necessary to have the space. That is now possible and is also now the greatest challenge we face to move forward. The hospital construction is slated to begin in 2020 and we will open in Mihan in 2021.
I hope that each one of you reading this will want to be a part of us and support us in our mission to excel in eye care, in reaching out to the community with the highest quality of eye care and in science, research and training.
This is who we are and this is how we would like to be remembered.
Dr. Vinay Nangia
Chair.
A special thanks to our team of Board members.
Shri Vinod Nangia
Dr. P. B. Behere
Dr. S. Bhaskaran
Shri Ashok Rathi
Shri Gagan Paul
Shri Sushil Chhabra
Dr. Vinay Nangia