Background

Dekhon was born when Dr. Deepak Garg, Mentor of the Project, observed the patient flow at Shri Ganapati Netralaya—one of the largest eye care facilities in India. Though the state of the art hospital was receiving nearly 500 patients a day, the prevalence of blindness in the state of Maharashtra remained a concern. Through his experience in the field, working at various eye hospitals in Mumbai and southern India, Dr. Garg felt that a system could be implemented that would serve as a means to eradicate blindness in the state of Maharashtra, and spread awareness about eye issues.

Diverse and International

Dr. Garg approached Brian and Benjamin Zehr to gauge their interest in engineering the system he envisioned. The potential of such an initiative was met with great enthusiasm and both of them, being on the verge of completing their respective stages of education in the United States, leapt at this opportunity. They, in turn, recruited Michael Powers and Barkha Kagliwal—both of them nearing the completion of their education in the USA and UK respectively—to join this founding team. The founding members of Dekhon, under the mentor-ship of Dr. Garg, proposed a system to eradicate blindness and provide all regions of the state with affordable access to the highest quality of eye care. The concept was met with tremendous support and energy and thus, the team began this project—Dekhon—to be executed as an initiative of Shri Ganapati Netralaya.  The founding members are currently implementing this concept, laying out the infrastructure for what they envision to be a self-sustaining network of eye-care facilities across the state. The founding members will hand over the working model and road-map for future growth to succeeding management in the latter part of 2012. The team will remain closely associated with this organization and its progress as they pursue their further education and careers.