Team Blitz India
Founded by Dr V.K. Raju, the Eye Foundation of America has set up eye camps in 30 developing countries, training medical personnel to serve the needy, and educating the population at large on preventive eye care.
World-renowned eye surgeon with a specialization in corneal transplant surgery, and humanitarian Dr V.K. Raju is diligently and passionately pursuing his mission of ridding the world of childhood blindness. His Eye Foundation of America (EFA) has set up eye camps in 30 developing countries, training medical personnel to serve the needy, and educating the population at large on preventative eye care and healthy lifestyle choices.
Why has he chosen to focus on childhood blindness? He told The Indian Panorama: “Let’s say a 67-year-old becomes blind. He or she has only a few years to live. But if a child becomes blind, especially needlessly with today’s technology and resources, he lives for seven decades without vision. We can catch them early and treat them and make them productive members of society for decades.”
For the past 4 decades, Dr. Raju and his foundation have been working to eliminate avoidable blindness in areas plagued by poverty and poor access to medical care. This is done under the guiding principles of service, teaching, and research. This is accomplished through eye camps and brick-and-mortar hospitals in developing countries, training of medical personnel to serve the needy, and educating the population at large on preventative eye care.
Dr. Raju quotes his mentor in London as saying, “There are three solutions for any problem. The first is education, the second is education, and the third is education.” With this education, patients are empowered to take charge of their lives and their health and prevent further deleterious consequences of their poor lifestyle choices.
What causes blindness? Dr Raju says that today the most common vision problem is cataract – clouding of the lens of the eye. Cataract is not a disease. It is just an aging phenomenon. But left untreated, cataract leads to blindness. Today very easy and successful surgeries are available to remove cataracts. You don’t need to stay in the hospital, you go home on the same day.
EFA has a reach that currently extends to 30+ developing countries and the USA. The EFA has served approximately 2 million patients and performed 300,000+ vision-saving surgeries, with 25,000+ surgeries performed on children alone.
Since its inception in 1977, the EFA has facilitated 600+ physician exchanges and trained 200+ ophthalmologists, equipping these medical practitioners with the tools to join the global fight against blindness.
Dr Raju has helped to build two hospitals in rural India: the Srikiran Eye Institute and the Goutami Eye Institute. Goutami has a wing dedicated exclusively to children. At Goutami Dr Raju says, “We never turn down a patient. How do we afford to do that? We have a system where we see 60% of the people almost for free or subsidized and 40% are paying patients.
The EFA has plans to build a service and research eye hospital in India where no child will be denied treatment and children from around the world can come to receive services.
Dr. Raju was born in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, India. He earned his medical degree from Andhra University and completed an ophthalmology residency and fellowship at the Royal Eye Group of Hospitals in London. He is board-certified in ophthalmology and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons. He has resided in Morgantown, West Virginia since 1976, where he is currently a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at West Virginia University.
Dr Raju has received many honors and awards, including 26 distinguished awards and 17 gold medals. In his adopted home state of West Virginia, he was awarded the Lions Club International (Morgantown) Jarrett Award. Morgantown Rotary honored him for community service in 2000. The award he is most proud of is the Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award from West Virginia University.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) has awarded Dr. Raju four times for his teaching and research contributions, including the Outstanding Humanitarian Award in 2002 for $1 million of his own money that went into building hospitals in India, teaching, and providing services to needy patients. The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) awarded Dr. Raju with their prestigious Distinguished Community Service Award in 2007. President Barack Obama presented him with the 2016 President’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
In West Virginia, Dr. Raju accepts patients who do not have medical insurance and performs surgical procedures that are not covered, often pro bono. This allows many of these patients to remain functional members of society.
Dr. Raju has authored hundreds of papers and publications and is the co-author of Musings on Medicine, Myth, and History: India’s Legacy, along with his daughter, Leela V. Raju
Dr. Leela Raju, his daughter and fellow ophthalmologist, is the EFA’s Secretary and Coordinator for Education and actively participates in its mission.
