SANTA CLARA, CA: Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF) organized a mega Dandia event in the Bay area to raise funds for the construction of their 10th eye hospital in India. The Dandia events were spread over four days – Oct19, 20, 26 and 27 in Santa Clara and Pleasanton.
The motto of the event was to spread awareness and to raise about $800,000 for the construction of their 10th eye hospital in Kanpur. They have received funds from a generous donor and were trying to match the rest with these events and start construction. They are planning to open the hospital by 2014 under Focus UP program.
The Dandia event on October 19 was held in Santa Clara Convention Center. The event was attended by 5000 people and there was a separate kids Dandiya area. The arrangements were done by about 200 volunteers. They had about 15 vendor stalls catering to jewelry, ethnic wear, real estate against and non-profits.
The kids area was unique and it had strollers parking area and was for kids below age 10 and they danced to the traditional tunes. The music for the event was by Preetysha and troupe from Los Angeles. The event sound system was unique with 65000WATT and was done by Pacific Sound. The main Dandia floor was occupied by about 4500 people and they danced till the wee hours.
The event was a huge success and people were open to help out for a cause way back in our homeland.
SEF is a non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of curable blindness in India. It was founded in 1998 in the Bay Area by K. Muralidharan, K. Sridharan and Ahmad Khushnood. With over 300 volunteers, SEF has major presence in several major US cities.
The bulk of fundraising is achieved through fundraising events, booths in major events, advertising and working with major donors, says Mr Murali Krishnamurthy, Executive Chairman SEF. Through these fundraising efforts, SEF, USA has played a significant role in increasing the number of free surgeries to over 140,000 in 2011. SEF’s mission is to realize the goal of 20/20 vision for the people of India by the year 2020 and to open about 20 hospitals all over India and provide about 1 million eye procedures.
The hospitals are operational in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Hrishikesh, Silvassa. India bears the highest burden of the world’s blind, facts are 1/4th of the world’s blind live in India, 45 million Indians are visually impaired, 12 million are totally blind, four million new cases are added yearly but fortunately, 80% of them can easily be cured, says SEF. These are incredibly large numbers and SEF’s vision is to work towards eradicating this problem by the year 2020.
SEF has a unique program to reach to the poor people in villages. Mr Krishnamurthy explains it as, “Rural outreach implies going to the economically disadvantaged people in rural areas who need the care and education” instead of waiting for them to come to a hospital or medical institution for eye care. They take them for check up, provide them with food, leave them back in village with proper medication, surgeries and follow up with them. We have performed over 750,000 surgeries performed and about 120,000 surgeries in 2011 alone.
Mr. Krishnamurthy thanked the Board of Trustees, Executive council members and volunteers who are worked relentlessly for this cause and made the event a grand success.
Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service
