By IANS,
San Francisco : Having completed setting up three eye hospitals in India this year, the US-based non-profit Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF) has now begun raising funds for two more charitable eye hospitals in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
At a fund raiser event – marked by a cultural extravaganza – this weekend at Hayward in California, the foundation raised $10,000 for the two hospitals.
“We have not identified the cities yet, where the eye hospitals would be constructed. We are still in the selection process,” said C. Sudheer from the Sankara Eye Foundation.
The fund raiser was organised in association with the Uttar Pradesh Association of North America.
“More such fund raisers are being planned in other parts of the US. We would purchase the land, once we collect 30 percent of our project money and would start construction, once we have 60 percent of the project money,” he said.
Addressing the gathering, Murali Krishnamurthy, chairman of the Sankara Eye Foundation, said this year they had completed three hospitals in Bangalore, Shimoga (Karnataka) and Anand (Gujarat).
Working towards the objective of eradication of curable blindness in India, the Sankara Eye Foundation runs a series of charitable eye hospitals and conducts free eye operations for the needy. This year, it has performed around 100,000 free eye surgeries in India.