The former Honorary Consul General of India, Mr. Upjit Singh Sachdeva (Mr. Jeety), has lavished praises on Dr. Niranjan K. Pehere, head Ophthalmologist of the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute at the Liberia Eye Center.
Mr. Sachdeva, a very successful Indian businessman, is more famously known in Liberia as “Jeety.”
He told his audience of medical practitioners, diplomats and others at the state-run John F. Kennedy Medical center which hosts the Eye Center that Dr. Pehere works beyond the call of duty.
“Dr. Niranjan and your team, I am very, very thankful to you for all the hard works that you are doing. You call him nine or 10 o-clock, he is at duty and doing whatever needs to be done. I think he is working beyond the call of duty,” said Mr. Jeety Wednesday, 16 August 2023.
Jeety is a member of the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute. The eye institute observed its sixth anniversary being in Liberia.
Over the last six years of the institute’s works in Liberia, there have been others who served before Dr. Niranjan.
“And the commitment, dedication I have seen in Dr. Niranjan, I never saw in any of his predecessors,” said Mr. Jeety.
The former Indian Honorary Consul General for over two decades, further said, “Whenever I come here and see the reports of Dr. Niranjan, my heart elates.”
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“I am very happy that this institute, which I worked to bring over to Liberia 10 years ago with the help of Damodar Gautam Sawang, who was the then Police Commissioner of UNMIL, is doing so well.”
According to him, he worked along with Officer Sawang to send to India, for eye care, Mr. Charles Sirleaf, the older son of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Mrs. Sirleaf was President of Liberia when the L.V. Prasad Institute was setup at JFK Hospital.
Jeety narrated that he also worked with Dr. Gullapalli Nageswara Rao, a senior fellow at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in India, to get everything done in Liberia.
“He visited Liberia as my guest at least three times. We were successful in convincing the Liberian Government and Dr. Rao that we would do everything that they needed for eye care in Liberia,” Jeety stated.
The L. V. Prasad Eye Institute celebrated six years because it was formerly inaugurated on July 24, 2017.
Giving the overview of the operations of the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute covering July 2022 and August 16, 2023, Dr. Niranjan said they have seen close to 18,000 patients. He said the year before that, they had seen close to 14,000 patients.
According to Dr. Niranjan, this is 20% patient increment from previous years.
He further disclosed that they have performed close to 15,000 surgeries and most of them were done at no cost.
He further said this is more than 60% increment from the previous year and that the increase in the number is due to the expansion in their surgical capacity.
Dr. Niranjan detailed that they now have two operating rooms and can do 10 to 15 surgeries daily.
He also reported that this year, the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute renewed its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the JFK authorities and that they have extended their lifespan for another five years until September 2027.
“The idea behind this is to build the capacity of the local staff that by 2027, they should be able to handle this project,” he added.
Among the significant reports, he stated that during the past year, they experimented working on Saturdays and they now work on that day, including performing surgeries.
He mentioned that employees are paid for that day based on the Labor Law of Liberia.
At the end of the 6th celebration, five members of the Institute’s staffers, including one Indian, were presented with certificate for their service over the last year.
Certificates presented included ‘Doctor of the year,’ and ‘Employee of the year.’ These two came with cash rewards.
