Story of Passion and Hope

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Dr. Shiva Prasad Sahoo, an alumnus of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya who is paying back the society each day …… 

Trilochan Netralaya is a non-profit charitable eye hospital which was established in Sambalpur, a part of western Odisha by Dr. Shiva Prasad Sahoo in 2008.

Having been born in a low-income family Dr. Shiva struggled a lot to get into the medical profession. Given an opportunity to study in a Government of India funded School called Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Shiva realized the meaning of good education and that of human values. He decided to pay back to society for the long seven years of study he enjoyed absolutely free of cost during his school days. After completion of post-graduation, he left the opportunity of a luxurious high paid salaried job and decided to stay back to serve the needy and poor people of western Odisha though he himself belongs to the eastern (coastal) Odisha.

Since its inception, Trilochan Netralaya has transformed the lives of more than 100 thousand people through sight-restoring eye surgeries in around 12 districts of western Odisha. Trilochan Netralaya has touched all these tribal and poverty-stricken districts from Sundergarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Sonepur, Bolangir, Bargarh, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Sambalpur. These are the districts that are very popular in the name KBK after the Govt of India started special development drive by the then Prime Minister Late Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. Many of these districts have been dominated by tribals and infested by Naxalites for many many years and even today.

Blindness is the greatest tragedy in human life next to death and 80% of this blindness is avoidable. Western Odisha is known for poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance and negligence. There is poor access to health care too. People living in a miserable condition can’t even dream of getting basic eye care. Trilochan Netralaya has been working hard for the last 10 years to reach the unreached for whom quality eye care is just a dream.

Dr. Shiva is not alone now. He is accompanied by another three full-time ophthalmologists and a team of 60+ odd paramedical and support staff. Most of these paramedical staff are college dropout girls from a very poor background, mostly from these western Odisha districts. Thus, not only eye care for the needy, Dr. Shiva has opened a door for women empowerment and creating jobs for these 100 odd families. The number still counting each year.

The three eye care units under the public charitable trust, Vision India Foundation, based in Sambalpur, Bhawanipatna (Kalahandi) and Jagatsinghpur cater to the needs of 10 million population with 10000+ sight-restoring surgeries each year.

This passionate doctor aspires to provide world-class eye care to all classes of people in the community. And this great aspiration gets reflected when Trilochan Netralaya has started offering the most advanced technique of cataract surgery, the phacoemulsification technique or computerized eye operation in lay man’s term for its charity patients whose number goes beyond thousands each year. Even the poorest of the poor blind patient in Kalahandi district gets the highest standard of cataract surgery which is available only in corporate hospitals at a cost of thousands of rupees or through insurance companies.

Quality Counts. And eyes are precious too for any human beings. Thus, bringing international guest faculties from Singapore, UK, USA has become a norm for Trilochan Netralaya. And through the participation of these professionals, Trilochan Netralaya has been constantly improving the service quality offered to its patients irrespective of their capacity to pay. Simultaneously, Dr. Shiva has been trying to upgrade and update the knowledge and skill of our own doctors who are serving the community through regular monthly and yearly academic workshops and seminars.

Looking for holistic health, Trilochan Netralaya has started this new initiative of spreading health awareness following a decade-old health awareness program of Singapore in the name of Project i2Eye. And covering interior community people as its catchment areas.

But the irony is Dr. Shiva still struggles to get patronage and support from the Government authority even though there are many government schemes running in the state and the country for the same very poor people for which Dr. Shiva is struggling. The base hospitals at Sambalpur and Kalahandi runs in small rented buildings with minimum patient amenities. He still hopes and waits for the day when authority recognizes his efforts, respect his passion, share his dream of world-class eye care even for the poor and lessen his burden so that everyone can see better even in the remotest part of the country because we are a 70 years old democracy ……. !!!

 

Personal Information of Dr. Shiva Prasad Sahoo

● Father’s Name- Sri Bishnu Charan Sahoo

● Mother’s Name – Late Smt. Shailabala Sahoo

● Date of Birth – 20/07/1977

● Place of Birth – Mahilo, Jagatsinghpur

● Schooling – Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Munduli, Cuttack

● MBBS- VIIMSAR, Burla

● Post-graduation in Ophthalmology – VIIMSAR, Burla

● One year of govt. Service at Phulbani

● One year of Private service at Grace vision foundation, JMJ hospital, Sambalpur

● Started Trilochan Netralaya in 2008.

–Press Release