But when the Covid-19 crisis hit, he harnessed his NGO experience to expand his mission’s remit, both in Singapore and India
Like many in Singapore’s healthcare ecosystem, Jayant V Iyer bravely volunteered to help manage the Covid-19 outbreak among dormitory-based migrant workers last year. But when he arrived at one of the affected dormitories, the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) eye surgeon registered a sense of uncertainty among the workers. He quickly harnessed his organisational skills from running non-profit organisation The Vision Mission to establish SingHealth’s Holistic Response and Outreach Team to help manage the outbreak that had affected over 50,000 migrant workers who were stuck in the dormitories.
“We got together a team of doctors who could speak Bengali or Tamil and volunteer translators to assess and listen to the workers’ concerns and to understand their situation. Then we brought together the various resources that Singapore has, including the healthcare authorities and NGOs, to offer them the care they needed,” says the head of SNEC’s Clinical and Service Quality departments. These included psychosocial support, management of chronic medical conditions, and organising activities such as English and yoga lessons to keep the workers occupied.
“It was a fulfilling experience to be able to bring some of my organisational humanitarian experience from overseas countries to help solve the problem in our own country,” says Dr Iyer, who was awarded The Courage Fund Healthcare Humanity Award 2020 and the Heroes Award at the Singapore Health Quality Service Awards 2021.
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The 40-year-old clinical assistant professor co-founded The Vision Mission in 2014 to ensure eye care is more equitably distributed around the world and to eradicate treatable blindness. “About 80 per cent of vision impairment is treatable or curable either by the provision of glasses or cataract surgery.”
The Singapore‑based organisation focuses on training the local doctors where it operates to perform the procedures and surgery that are needed to restore a person’s sight. “We find local unsung heroes who are going beyond the call of duty and we train, support and empower them,” says Dr Iyer.
This strategy is in part inspired by his 2011 humanitarian trip to Odisha, one of the poorest states in India, where he met Dr Shivaprasad Sahoo. “I was amazed that with minimal resources he was still able to achieve good outcomes and give people their vision back,” describes Dr Iyer. Since then, he has been working with Dr Sahoo to offer eye care services in this region.
To date, The Vision Mission has trained doctors in Myanmar, Vietnam and India, and has also organised surgeries for over 10,000 people in the region. In his personal capacity, Dr Iyer also trains doctors in Singapore and other parts of the world, including Mongolia, China and Kenya.
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