1-866-726-5272
By K. Sridharan
President and Co-Founder
It feels just like yesterday - has it really been 25 years? Yes!!! 2023 is the 25th year anniversary of the Sankara Eye Foundation, USA. We thank you for joining us on this path to a brighter world, and today, I take the opportunity to reflect on the beautiful journey of the past 25 years.
A Call from Our Uncle
Our family’s journey with SEF, USA began in 1997 when our uncle, the Late Mr. P. Balasubramaniam, greatly inspired by the work of Dr. R.V. Ramani and Dr. Radha Ramani, the founders of Sankara Eye Foundation, India, began volunteering at the Coimbatore hospital. He urged me and my brother, Murali Krishnamurthy, to set up an organization in the US to raise funds for free eye surgeries provided by Sankara’s “Gift of Vision” rural outreach program.
My First Visit to Sankara, Coimbatore
In 1997 I visited the Sankara Eye Hospital, Coimbatore for the first time, and that changed our lives forever!
I was immediately impressed with two things; how clean and modern this charity hospital was, and how all the staff had the same culture of selfless service. While walking through the wards with the staff, the patients blessed us by saying “neenga nalla irunkkanum sami” (may you live well). After the visit, I asked Dr. Ramani what made him and his wife, Dr. Radha, give up their successful medical practices and dedicate their lives to this cause? He explained to me that the satisfaction one gets from looking at a child being able to see for the first time, an adult becoming a breadwinner after getting the vision back, or an older person becoming independent with restored eyesight - is the greatest gift of all.
Establishing Sankara Eye Foundation, USA
I came back to the United States and convinced my brother and our families to get involved. Our neighbor, Mr. Ahmad Khushnood, a CPA, helped us navigate the paperwork for getting nonprofit status. In 1998, we got our 501 C (3) status and established SEF, USA. The rest, as they say, is history!
SEF, USA started from my brother, Murali's house in the Bay Area, CA. At that time, SEF, India had one hospital in Coimbatore and was performing 8,000 free eye surgeries per year. Our families, including our mother, reached out to our friends and relatives requesting support for the organization.
The First Fundraiser
Our first fundraiser was with Pallavi, a light music group Murali was a part of. Jayanthi, my wife, and Kala, Murali’s wife, reached out to various businesses to get sponsors for the event, and in due course, met Divyogi Patel, who eventually joined the SEF, USA board.
The event was a huge success. Our volunteer base increased steadily and over time we expanded the SEF, USA Board. Our goal was to run the charity efficiently, but with an open, grass-roots organizational culture where everyone’s voice was heard, and everyone was a stakeholder.
Vision 2020
Every SEF volunteer adds unique value to the organization. At this time, our volunteer, Rajiv Chamraj, suggested a vision statement for SEF, USA - “Vision 20/20 by the year 2020”, which fitted in well with our goal of addressing the problem of curable blindness in India.
Partners in Service
Our first expansion outside Coimbatore was in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. SEF, USA developed community support partnerships with cultural organizations like Bay Area Telugu Association (BATA) and Telugu Association of North America (TANA), and introduced concepts such as “Partner in Service” where we could involve individuals and organizations as partners.
Sankara Eye Hospital, Guntur
In 2004, SEF built the hospital in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, on land donated by a devotee of the Kanchi Mutt. Today it is the second largest of all Sankara Eye Hospitals for free eye surgeries performed. Then, a hospital in Krishnankoil, Tamil Nadu, was handed over to SEF, India to manage and became a Sankara Eye Hospital. In the fiscal year 2004-2005, the number of free eye surgeries surged to 53,000.
In 2007, SEF, USA organized events on a mega scale starting with the Sankara Eye Foundation Dandia in the Bay Area, followed by a string of megastar Bollywood concerts starring Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik, Sonu Nigam, and Shreya Ghosal among others.
Soon our volunteers in other states like Seattle, Texas, NewYork/New Jersey, and Southern California began SEF, USA chapters and took on fundraising events, big and small.
Sankara Eye Hospitals Anand, Shimoga, and Bengaluru
In 2008, SEF, USA inaugurated three hospitals in Anand, Gujarat, Shimoga, Karnataka, and Bengaluru, Karnataka. The Anand hospital, in fact, required $750,000 and after an appeal in the media, we received the entire amount from a donor who chose to remain anonymous. The Anand Hospital was inaugurated by Prime minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat.
Model of Scalability
With the addition of every hospital, SEF, USA expanded its volunteer and support base. Soon, we were able to scale using the 80:20 (70:30 for some hospitals) “scalability model” where 80% of the free surgeries were paid for by 20% of the paying patients.
In 2009, our uncle, Mr. P Balausbramaniam, left for his heavenly abode. Till his end, he was delighted that his efforts yielded results, in his own words, “beyond his wildest dreams”. He continues to inspire us to date.
A Decade of Steady Growth: Ludhiana, Kanpur, Jaipur and Indore
In 2010, we achieved one of the greatest milestones in SEF, USA history; we crossed one million free eye surgeries, cumulatively. In the next decade SEF, USA, grew to serve some of the large and needy states in India, with hospitals in Ludhiana, Punjab (2012), Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh (2014), Jaipur, Rajasthan (2017), and Indore, Madhya Pradesh (2020).
R.Jhunjhunwala Sankara Eye Hospitals and Hyderabad Hospital
In 2020, Late Shri Rakesh Jhunjhunwala became a patron of the Sankara Eye Foundation with a generous contribution which enabled the R.Jhunjhunwala Sankara Eye Hospital in Panvel, Maharashtra (2021). He also pledged a generous bequest for the upcoming hospital, the R.Jhunjhunwala Sankara Eye Hospital in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
In April 2023, with generous support from the government of Telangana, SEF, USA inaugurated the Sankara Eye Hospital, Hyderabad, our biggest hospital so far with top-class training facilities.
Building a Network with Partners
In 2018, in a major strategic shift, in order to reach the most underserved districts of India, SEF, USA ventured into partnerships with like-minded charitable eye hospitals that are aligned with our core values and the goal of providing sustainable and high-quality eye care to the underserved in India.
Vision 2030: March to a Million
Pioneered by SEF, USA board member, Sundar Radhakrishnan, our partner program has enabled SEF, USA to envision Vision 2030: March to a Million, the larger goal of performing one million sustainable free eye surgeries annually by 2030.
SEF, USA partners with institutions who have the following qualities:
Our current partners in our March to a Million are:
We are also partnering with Nanritam in Purulia, MGM Eye Institute in Raipur, Vivekananda Netralaya in Dehradun, Vision India Foundation, and Siliguri Greater Lions Eye Hospital in Siliguri, to provide free eye surgeries in the states of West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttarakhand.
Supporting Hospitals During the Pandemic
During the pandemic, we supported SEF, India, and our partner hospitals, enabling them to diversify to Covid care and respond to the crisis while retaining all the staff at various hospitals.
Culture and Values
Throughout our journey of 25 years, SEF, USA’s culture has remained one of accountability, transparency, efficiency, respect, and honoring diversity. This has helped SEF, USA maintain its top rating of 4-stars by Charity Navigator for over nine years in a row, placing it in the top three percent of all charities rated by Charity Navigator in the United States.
We are today the largest free eye care provider in the world, and we are poised to achieve our goal of one million sustainable free eye surgeries per year by the year 2030.
Let us march together to Vision 2030!!!
Making the world brighter, together.
info@giftofvision.org
1-866-726-5272
