Chennai, Sep 4 (PTI) NGO India Vision Institute on Sunday said it has received the Vision 2020 Dr Jordan Kassalow Vision Spring Award for its work in eye care and providing spectacles free of cost to the needy.

India Vision Institute (IVI) won the award instituted by Vision 2020 India, for its work in providing access to vision health and corrective eyeglasses to the underprivileged.

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On behalf of India Vision Institute, its CEO Vinod Daniel received the award at the 16th Annual Vision 2020: The Right to Sight-India national conference held in Siliguri, West Bengal recently, a press release said here.

"The Vision 2020 Dr Jordan Kassalow Vision Spring award is an honour and recognition to India Vision Institute. The award will inspire us to contribute even more...," Daniel said upon receiving the award.

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The award was named after Vision Spring's founder Dr Jordan Kassalow, who is also a co-founder of a multi-stakeholder coalition EYElliance to help increase access to eyeglasses, the release said.

"Our work in the past 10 years has provided access to over six lakh underprivileged lives, including school children, women and transgender communities among others, in some 20 states across India," he said.

"I thank Vision 2020 India for this recognition and our partners for their support to our vision screening programmes that is helping thousands of underprivileged people in far-flung and remote communities to see better and more productive in life and work," Daniel said.

The mission of India Vision Institute is to augment the country's primary eye care capacity through vision screening, outreach and advocacy, awareness generation, capacity building. Free spectacles have been distributed to over 1.50 lakh people who are in need of a pair, the release added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)