The Challenge

Loss of eye sight has a tremendously negative economic and social impact on low-income families, often reducing or eliminating the ability of at least one family member to earn an income, further stretching already thin familial resources.

The prevalence of blindness is partly a symptom of pervasive lack of access to health care, particularly preventive care, as such blindness is a major public health issue in India.

The Innovation

Acumen’s investment in PVRI will enable the business to build two additional hospitals, thus expanding its reach to approximately 50 percent of Andhra Pradesh, India’s fifth most populous state with 75 million people.

By expanding its flagship hospital in Secunderabad into three hospitals, PVRI will be able to provide specialized eye care for a much larger cross section of the population, with a special focus on treating diabetic blindness, childhood blindness, and corneal blindness.

The Impact

With this expansion, PVRI, which has previously been able to treat more than 25,000 patients, will now aim to provide treatment to nearly a million people suffering from various forms of preventable eye disease.

To date, PVRI has treated over 250,000 patients, including 20,000 surgeries. Over 90 percent of their patients come from very low-income households.