While living in London, Dr. V.K. Raju traveled home to India on vacation, where a farmer asked him to examine his eyes. Dr. Raju complied, but without any instruments. In 1977, Dr. Raju returned to rural India with personnel and equipment and offered his first eye camp near his hometown; this was the inception of the Eye Foundation of America (EFA).
For the past 4 decades, Dr. Raju and the EFA have been actively and tirelessly on a crusade to eliminate avoidable blindness in areas plagued by poverty and poor access to medical care. Because Dr. Raju feels so incredibly thankful for his personal and professional gifts, he makes great effort to share those gifts with those in need of his services. He believes that medical professionals in the United States are afforded many material comforts, and as such, only voluntary service can alleviate the feeling of intellectual poverty. He gives freely of his own time, money, and medical expertise to help the less fortunate.
The EFA’s mission is to eliminate avoidable blindness 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,andeducatingthepopulationatlargeon preventative eye care and healthy lifestyle choices. Dr. Raju quotes his mentor in London as saying, “There are 3 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 own health and prevent further deleterious consequences of their poor lifestyle choices, while sharing this knowledge with their friends and families.
When education and preventative measures are insufficient, medical and surgical interventions are performed.With the aim of permanently providing world-class state-of-the art services to populations with poor access to health care, the EFA helped to build 2 hospitals in rural India: the Srikiran Eye Institute and the Goutami Eye Institute. The Goutami Institute has a wing dedicated to exclusively to children, and the EFA has future 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 and the EFA are also committed to finding new cures for age-old eye disease in children.
With all of Dr. Raju’s momentous achievements, he has also ensured that his life’s work and vision are self-sustaining. Dr. Raju has passed on his knowledge, plans, and vision to the future leaders of this movement: Dr. Leela Raju, Dr. Raju’s daughter and fellow ophthalmologist, is the EFA’s Secretary and Coordinator for Education and actively participates in its mission. “Our work is only just beginning,” affirms Dr. Raju.
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, England. 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, WV since 1976, where he is currently a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at West Virginia University (WVU), the Section Chief of the Ophthalmology Department at Monongalia General Hospital, runs a
private practice at the Monongalia Eye Clinic, and is the Founder and Medical Director of the EFA, a registered non-profit organization.
Dr. Raju began the work of the EFA in 1977 by offering eye camps. The West Virginia Ophthalmology Foundation was subsequently created in 1982 and became the EFA in 1992. The realization of Dr. Raju’s vision, the 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.
Awards/Recognition Received by Dr. Raju
State
Dr. Raju has received many honors and awards, including 26 distinguished awards and 17 gold medals. In Dr. Raju’s adopted home state of West Virginia, he was awarded both the Lions Club International (Morgantown) Jarrett Award and the WVU International Service Award in 1995. Morgantown Rotary International presented Dr. Raju with an award for community service in 2000. He also received the Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award from WVU in 2008.
National
The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) has awarded Dr. Raju 4 times for his teaching and research contributions, including the Outstanding Humanitarian Award in 2002. Dr. Raju received this honor because of the more than $1 million dollars of his own money that went into building hospitals in India, teaching, and providing services to needy patients. At the same meeting in which Dr. Raju was presented with this award, he also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Association of Asian Indians in Ophthalmology. That same year, Dr. Raju received the Free to Achieve Award from the Maryland chapter of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) for his philanthropy. The AAPI also awarded Dr. Raju with their prestigious Distinguished Community Service Award in 2007 for his service, patient care, teaching, research, and professional and community involvement. In 2011, he received a Senior Achievement Award from the AAO. He has received awards from Lions International and Rotary International. For his humanitarian work, the American Medical Association Foundation acknowledged him with the prestigious Dr. Nathan Davis International Award for Excellence in Medicine in 2013. For the past 2 years, Dr. Raju has expanded his humanitarian efforts in African countries by joining the Carter Center’s Ambassador Program. President Barack Obama presented Dr. Raju with the 2016 President’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He was recently inducted invited guest of honor at GITAM University and the All Indian Ophthalmology Society Meeting in 2012.
Since its inception, 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. The EFA not only trains medical practitioners to join the global fight against blindness through exchange programs, but also provides workshops and training opportunities for medical students and physicians. Dr. Raju’s charisma and vision inspire the EFA’s trainees return to their native countries to prevent and/or alleviate blindness in the field. For example, India and Ghana are actively engaged in avoidable blindness elimination projects with cooperation from their governments. In 2016 in India, 4,889 vision and 374 retinopathy of prematurity screenings were conducted; 779 eye glasses were distributed, and 162 pediatric
surgeries were performed. In Ghana in 2016, the Avoidable Blindness Elimination Project (abep@5) and the World Sight Day Kids Funfair screened 9,763 people, including 7,453 children, and detected ophthalmologic diseases in more than 1,000 individuals who consequently received treatment, which included 157 surgeries. More than 11,560 children received vision screenings in Ghana schools; eye glasses and follow-up care were provided when necessary.
Dr. Raju contributes to society in his home country of India and his adopted home state of WV. He believes in and practices Ayurveda, an ancient Indian health care philosophy that emphasizes a holistic approach in which prevention is preferable to treatment. In some cases, blindness and visual impairment can be prevented in developing countries by simply providing a pair of corrective glasses costing less than $10 or delivering vitamin A supplements for just a few cents per dose. The public is educated on eye care and injury prevention, and local teachers are taught how to screen for early eye problems in children. Patients, their families, and the greater community benefit from preventative medical care, free procedures, and access to education.
In WV, Dr. Raju accepts patients that do not have medical insurance and performs surgical procedures that are not covered. If a patient is unable to pay for the costly services rendered, he asks for a small donation to the EFA. Dr. Raju performs free procedures that amount to an estimated $25,000-45,000 per year. This allows many of these patients to remain functional members of society.
The execution of his vision, affordable and accessible healthcare, has provided innumerable individuals with the invaluable gift of sight. In children, this gift results in 75 years of a full and productive life. These children, who would be considered a burden to society, are then able to contribute and to their families and to society.
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