Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service
On Saturday December 9, the Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF) hosted its signature annual banquet at Signia By Hilton, San Jose, California. These banquets are meant to honor its donors and provide them updates on its current as well as upcoming projects. This year, the goal was to raise $1,000,000 and courtesy the generosity of its donors, SEF was able to reach, in fact surpass that target.
Murali Krishnamurthy, Executive chairman of SEF USA updated the guests on the progress of various projects, funds to be raised, and the vision for the future. He talked about SEF USA’s efforts to scale up to one million free eye surgeries a year by the year 2030 through partnerships with other organizations and arresting the growth of blindness. In the last 25 years we have come a long way together. From supporting one eye hospital in Coimbatore Sankara Eye Foundation, USA has become the world’s largest free eye-care and eye-surgery initiative, said Murali.
As a non-profit, SEF volunteers have been working tirelessly for two decades to eradicate curable blindness in India. Working on a model of 80:20 free-to-paid-patients ratio, the funds raised through these events are used to further the cause. SEF India has a success rate of 98.8 percent and 96 percent of patients have been able to get back to their basic chores. The organization is not just treating people but also training future doctors through Sankara Academy of Vision.
Each of Sankara’s state of the art hospitals offers comprehensive eye care services including treatment for cataract, glaucoma, cornea and refractive surgery, diabetic retinopathy, ocular oncology and pediatric ophthalmology. Founded in 1998, SEF, USA is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit. It boasts the highest rating from Charity Navigator for many years in a row. For more information, or to donate, call 1 (866) SANKARA (726-5272) or visit www.giftofvision.org.
Pic credit: SEF and Silicon photography
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