Vision is a blessing that has found its way to us. But not everyone is lucky in that regard. There happens to be 2.2 billion people who suffer from blindness. The big number might be a bad news, but the good news is that blindness can be cured – at least when we are talking about cataract blindness.

However, what might seem strange is that why there remains so many cases of cataract blindness even when it can be cured? Poor medical infrastructure and lack of funds are the two pivotal reasons.

Billionaire philanthropist Tej Kohli and leading ophthalmologist Dr. Sanduk Ruit have united in their mission to eliminate blindness from the world. Here are some of the achievements of their foundation:

• Up until now they have screened over 1,42,033 patients and cured over 17,000 out of them.
• The foundation’s target has been the poor strata of the third world countries who do not have any access to medical infrastructure, and those who cannot afford to get treated.
• One needs to have knowledge before they can change their lives. That said, apart from striving to cure blindness, the foundation has also been raising awareness about the treatments and facility that the poor can make use of. For this very reason, they are coordinating with international bodies across the world, including the United Nation. They have also collaborated with the Evening Standard to share their stories to build awareness amongst people.
• The foundation has already set up 52 outreach camps across the world to extend a helping hand for those in need.
• Tej Kohli and Dr. Sanduk Ruit’s foundation has also partnered with 8 hospitals to take bigger steps towards their mission.

The achievements have been many, and several milestones have been reached as well. But this is not the end of a journey for the Tej Kohli-Ruit foundation. By 2030, with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, the foundation aims to increase the number of cured cases of blindness. Their goal is to cure 5,00,000 people of blindness by 2030.