Prasad Chikitsa Charitable Trust, the PRASAD entity in India, held a significant and historical event on Tuesday, August 5, 2003, at which time the Trustees of Prasad Chikitsa inaugurated the Gurudev Siddha Peeth Netra Chikitsa Hospital. Housed in Baba Kripa, a building in the Ganeshpuri Township, it is the first permanent hospital facility to
be established by Prasad Chikitsa. The hospital, which includes both eye and medical clinics, is the long-cherished vision of Dr. Tulika Kar, Prasad Chikitsa's resident eye surgeon.

The Gurudev Siddha Peeth Netra Chikitsa Hospital houses 16 beds and will be open year-round for surgery. The hospital beds will be reserved for patients receiving free care, while paying patients will stay in the township. Currently Dr. Kar performs approximately 400 free eye surgeries and 400 paid surgeries each year. She plans to expand her services so that the number of free surgeries can be tripled to 1500, and the paid surgeries can increase to 500 patients a year.

On June 24, 2003, two weeks prior to the hospital inauguration, the new Medical Center was inaugurated by Dr. Subhash Salunke, the Director of Health Services in Maharashtra. Adjacent to the eye hospital, the center houses existing medical services which include general medical, ENT, dental and cardiology outpatient clinics, a laboratory and an x-ray facility. The cardiology clinic will be run by volunteer doctors, and the general outpatient clinic will continue some of the work previously performed by the Muktananda Mobile Hospital. The outpatient clinic is now seeing approximately 300 people daily. This frees up the mobile hospital to extend their services outward into more remote and poorer areas. The medical center will also enable Prasad Chikitsa to offer more efficient follow-up services to patients in addition to comprehensive, high quality medical treatment. They will be able to conduct trainings in preventative and diagnostic health care and provide Tansa region residents with easier access to professional health services.

This is a major milestone for The PRASAD Project. Please join us in offering congratulations to Prasad Chikitsa trustees and staff, and to Dr. Kar. We offer special thanks to the Gurudev Siddha Peeth Trust for their great support in enabling this to happen.

EVENTS IN PROGRESS