“Children with curable blindness suffer the most. Unlike adults they face many obstacles and find it hard to cope with life.” – Sankara Eye Foundation
On 09/21/23 as a part of the Humanitarian mission at Project Jatropha, I had the privilege of interviewing the honorable founder and executive chairman, Mr. Krishnamurthy of Sankara Eye Foundation and learning more about their work. I also had the honor of meeting his staff in their headquarters in Milpitas, California.
Here are some excerpts from the interview: Founded in 1998 by Mr. Krishnamurthy and his family in India, this foundation has made phenomenal progress. Covering 15 Indian States and 12 Sankara Hospitals, the foundation has performed 356,000 free eye surgeries in 2023. Totally, they’ve performed 504,000 surgeries and their goal is to reach 800,000 by 2028 and 1 million by 2030 (Krishnamurthy, Murali. Interview. Conducted by Ganesh Kumar. 21 September 2023).
The statistics about vision impairment is disturbing. Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have vision impairment, of which at least 1 billion cases of vision impairment could have been prevented or are yet to be addressed. Nearly 30% of the world’s blind and vision-impaired live in South East Asia. (WHO, World Sight Day statement). Nearly 40 million people in India, including 1.6 million children, are blind or visually impaired. (The Tribune) (Sankara Eye Foundation, n.d.).
Thanks to the chairman, Mr. Krishnamurthy and his dedicated team of volunteers, Sankara Eye Foundation continues making a positive impact in curing treatable blindness and providing the necessary eye care for the underprivileged based in India. Mr. Krishnamurthy’s thought-provoking quote, “You close your eyes and donate and we’ll open more eyes.”, has been in my mind ever since. Project Jatropha made a small contribution for the same cause. For more information, please visit their website. You can hear Mr.Krishnamurthy talk passionately about his foundation here Chairman Interview
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