LAICO’s mission is to eliminate needless blindness by enhancing eye care services worldwide

Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO) is the training and consulting arm of Aravind Eye Care System. Aravind Eye Hospitals handle over 4.4 million outpatient visits and perform over 500,000 surgeries each year making it the largest eye care provider in the world.

 

Over 50% of this is provided either free or steeply subsidized to the patient, while ensuring all patients are accorded the same high quality of care. Aravind’s financially self sufficient system is recognized as a model for other developing countries.

 

LAICO was established in 1992 with the mandate to support eye care programmes globally through consultancy and capacity building, management training, and research. For over two decades, LAICO has been working with individuals involved in eye care, eye hospitals, agencies supporting eye care and policymakers.

 

LAICO has worked with over 400 hospitals in India and other developing countries and has trained over 3,500 professionals from over 80 countries. It is conservatively estimated that LAICO’s work has resulted in additional one million surgeries annually.