Austin Andrew partners with Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital
Corporate Social Responsibility is something we feel passionate about at Austin Andrew. We’re proud to partner with Eastern India’s largest eye Hospital, Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital in Bihar, India and sponsor the education of girls under their “Football to Eyeball” programme.
Akhand Jyoti’s vision is to help eliminate curable blindness and visual impairment by providing affordable and accessible eye health services in low-income regions while empowering women to achieve this.
Their mission is to provide 2 million sight restoring eye surgeries and primary care to 12 million of the poorest sections; and engage and empower 1,500 girls from these regions by 2030.
Akhand Jyoti’s base hospital, a 200-bed facility in the village of Mastichak in the rural hinterlands in saran district of Bihar – is the hub for the programme. Rural girls, hailing from very humble families are inducted in the six-year residential programme after standard 10 and encouraged to play football to build their confidence and trained to become professionally qualified optometrists. They are guaranteed with employment as an optometrist at the end of the course and are absorbed at various Akhand Jyoti hospitals and vision centres.
Football is used as a medium to show the local society that the traditional stereotypes, which undermine opportunities for girls (particularly rural), can be overcome for the better.
As of July 2023 Austin Andrew have sponsored two girls on the “Football to Eyeball” programme.
They will embark on a six year programme, starting with a two year foundation course before undertaking a four degree in optometry after which they will emerge as qualified and skilled optometrists. The girls will then be employed back in the hospital to drive its blindness eradication efforts.
