SANKARA EYE FOUNDATION, USA
raises $26,000 to support Ludhiana Hospital
Los Angeles, Dec. 24, 2011
NRIpress.com
SANKARA EYE FOUNDATION, USA, (SEF) with more than 100 energetic volunteer leaders in the United States had played a significant role in increasing the number of free surgeries thirteen fold to 105,396 in 2009.
“Jyot Se Jyot Jagate Chalo…….” was a theme of a beautiful southern California evening’s “Gift of Vision Banquet” of the Sankara Eye Foundation hosted by the team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers of Southern California Chapter of Sankara Eye Foundation.
Facility and dinner was provided by Mr. Paul Ghotra (middle), owner of Diamond Palace Restaurant
Chill in the air, and warm hearts full of support for the gift of vision program, focused on Punjab Hospital, began at 7.00 pm at the Diamond Palace, cuisine of India restaurant located in the heart of City of Diamond Bar, Los Angeles County. A fully sold out event attended by more than 200 guests from local Gurudwaras, businessmen, local and dedicated Sankara supporters and Mr.Ranjodh Singh Patron of Ludhiana Project came from Punjab to attend this event as Guest of Honour. The hum in the air was how to raise maximum funds in support of the completion of the construction of State of the Art Punjab Hospital at Ludhiana by March 2012. The participants opened up their heart and poured more than $26,000 in donations.
Mr. Ranjodh Singh’s heart felt appeal with personal experiences of visits to Sankara Hospitals and a detailed report of the Punjab hospital convinced many to donate for a worthy cause. He spoke in english and in punjabi languages made the appeal more touching and personal. The video of Sankara Eye Foundation touched many hearts and many participants agreed to sponsor $1,000 for the “Wall of Founder” and one or two eye surgeries a month for a year support ($360 for one surgery a month for a year and $720 for two surgeries for a month for one year).
Facility and dinner was provided by Mr. Paul Ghotra, owner of Diamond Palace Restaurant while an excellent evening with beautiful oldies of Indian movie songs were provided by Jhankar Group of Ms. Mayuri and Mr. Kirti Patel, accompanied by Mr. Amis Chandani, a extremely versatile musician on key board and flutes, and Rishi Thakar, an accomplished yound artist on tabla and octopad.
The success of this evening, from 7.00 pm to midnight of fund raising event with music and dinner, goes to the dedicated volunteers of So. Cal. Chapter of Sankara Eye Foundation. They include: Jagdish Shah (this evening event coordinator), Yatin Buch, Urvi Buch, Girish Mehta, Shobha Mehta, Mansukh Kaneria, Deepak Chopra, Nayanaben Patel, Luv Buch, Kush Buch, Ami Mehta, Binde, Sahil, Malkit Singh, Shankar, Anju Desai (from Northern California), and many others. MC for the evening was Mr. Sailesh Ranchhod.
Further efforts were made in San Jose and LA Gurdwaras on the weekend when the SANKARA Volunteers along with Ranjodh Singh attended the events.
SANKARA drive community eye care activities in India by working with eye care organisations such as Sankara Eye Care Institutions, which runs the Sankara Eye Hospital in Coimbatore. SANKARA was founded in 1998 by by Murali Krishnamurthy, K. Sridharan, and Sridharan's neighbor Ahmad Khushnood, SEF has risen to great heights from its humble beginnings. At the urging of their uncle Mr. P. Balasubramaniam of India, brothers Murali and Sridharan became motivated to help Sankara Eye Care Institutions, whose mission headquarters is in Coimbatore, India.
The majority of our fundraising effort is achieved through fundraising events, booths in major events, advertising and working with major donors.
The Gift of Vision program is based on an "80/20" model, i.e., four free eye surgeries are performed for each paid surgery. Thousands of rural poor have received free eye surgeries.
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CM ASKS SANKARA EYE TRUST TO SET UP MORE EYE HOSPITALS IN PUNJAB
CHANDIGARH OCTOBER 2, 2009
The Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today called upon the Sankara Eye Care Institutions to open such more hi-tech no profit super speciality eye care institutions in other parts of the state to cater the needs of poor patients suffering from eye ailments.
Interacting with the Honorary Director Project “Vision 2020", Mr. C.N. Srivatsan of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Trust which was running a chain of Sankara Eye Care Institutions with its mission headquarter Coimbatore, the Chief Minister hoped that the upcoming 100 bedded Sankara Eye Hospital at Ludhiana - the first project of its kind in the state would provide the best treatment to the patients with eye diseases. He urged the trust to set up such more hospitals in the state to serve the economically weaker sections of the society with the missionary zeal and firm commitment, which were deprived of health care facilities being very expensive and beyond their reach.
Briefing the Chief Minister Mr. Srivastsan said that 20000 free eye surgeries would be performed every year. He also pointed out that 80% of the beneficiaries would be the needy poor to whom the entire services would be provided free of cost, the middle income and affluent people would constitute the balance 20% of beneficiaries who would pay for their eye care. All specialties like Cataract, Glaucoma, Retinal diseases and Peadiatrict Ophthalmology would be made available in this hospital. He also informed Mr. Badal that eye surgeons and administrators would be identified from Punjab and undergo intensive training at Coimbatore and Bangalore before getting posted in Ludhiana eye hospital. Like wise, +2 passed girls from Punjab especially belonging to socio economically poor families from the Ludhiana region would be identified purely on merit and aptitude basis and would be trained at Coimbatore and Bangalore for a University certified course for a period of 18 to 24 months. After successful completion of the course, they would be absorbed as paramedics at Sankara Eye Hospital Ludhiana to serve the people of Punjab.
The goodwill Ambassador Mr. Jessie Singh from USA informed the Chief Minister that the ultimate goal was to achieve perfect visual status of vision by the year 2020 through establishing twenty such hospitals in different parts of the country. He hoped that when all the hospitals were in place by the year 2020, nearly one million people would be benefited every year, half a million through surgeries and half of though procedures.
On the occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Vipul Limited with Sankara Eye Care Institutions, India in the presence of the Chief Minister for setting up the eye care hospital in Ludhiana over land of 2 acres provided by Vipul Limited in its Vipul World Project near Ludhiana on Ferozepur road at nominal lease rent for 90 years.
Prominent amongst others who were present in the occasion included Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Gaggandip Singh Brar, Managing Director Vipul Limited Mr. Puneet Beriwala and CEO Mr. Guninder Singh.
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