Question 1 What is SEF?
-History
Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF) was founded in 1998 to support the work of Sankara Eye Care Institutions (SECI) which was started in 1977. SEF provides support for FREE Eye Surgeries to the visually handicapped poor of India.
-People Involved
SECI India was started by Dr. Ramani and his wife Dr. Radha Ramani and another key player of SECI is Dr. S.V. Balasubramaniam who is a well-known Industrialist. Dr. Ramani is the Managing Trustee and Dr. S.V. Balasubramaniam is the Chairman of SECI. SEF USA was founded by brothers Murali Krishnamurthy and K. Sridharan and their friend Mr. Ahmad Khushnood of Pakistan.
-Non-Profit Status
Ahmad is a CPA and he helped with the paperwork to get a non-profit status for SEF under Section 501 c-3. The Tax id is 77-6141976 and any donation to SEF in the USA is 100% Tax Deductible.
-Service Model - 80-20 Model
Goal is for every New Hospital to become Self-Sufficient in five years. This can be achieved by 75-25 or 80-20 model, wherein 25% of the patients pay for their services and subsidize the 75% of the patients who are poor and cannot pay.
-How Many hospitals
SEF and its partners SECI and Mission For Vision, UK now run eight Eye Hospitals in the country in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
-How Many Surgeries
In 2009, the numbe rof surgeries will be around 100,000
-Volunteers Numbers
Around 700 volunteers all over the country and around 400 in the Bay Area
-US Chapters of Volunteers
Bay Area, Southern California, Seattle, Tri-State (NY, NJ, CT), Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix
-Goal
Play a major role in eradicating curable blindness in India by the year 2020 - Vision 20/20 by 2020, by building and running at least one Sankara Eye Hospital per state of India.
Web: www.giftofvision.org
Tel: 1-866-Sankara (1-866-726-5272)
Question 2 How funds are raised.
-Marketing through TV Ads/Radio Ads/Print Media
-Fund-Raising Events
- Marathon
- Dandiya
- Banquet
Types of Donations
-Monthly Donations
-Yearly Donations
- Wall of Founder
- Partner Organizations
There are two main streams of donations - one for the FREE Eye Surgeries and one for the new Hospital construction projects
Eye Surgeries - Open an Eye for $30, Open an eye a month for $30 a month or Open an eye a week for $30 a week etc.,
Capital projects - For a $1,000 donation, a donor becomes a founding donor and can have the name of a love done on the Hospital Wall of Founders. We raised almost 1,000 such donations for a total of $1Million for our last Gujarat Hospital If a company matches donation then a donor has to only pay $500 to become a Founding Donor of a Hospital. Any Organization or an individual raising $100,000 becomes a Partner-in-Service of a Hospital and will be duly recognized at the Hospital and on the inauguration day.
Question 3 What is the status of Punjab Hospital SEF
-Land Status
We are trying to acquire two acres of Land in Ludhiana
-Construction Plan And Costs,
Besides land, tentative budget for the construction will be $2.5M to $3M
-Beds,
100 Beds for the FREE Patients and 25 Beds for the Paying Patients
-Funds needed
Construction will start after we raise 70% of teh required funds which is around $1.75M and the construction takes around ten months to complete
-Staff Hiring
Paramedical staff will be hired from Punjab and they will be trained at our existing Hospital for up to 18 months before they start working at the Punjab Hospital.
-Volunteers Involved
Ravinder Singh Saini, Mira Malkani, Sarbjeet Singh, Mohinder Singh, Tara Kaur, Namrata Gupta, Deepashri, Neha Gambhir, Haritha Bajaj, Murali Krishnamurthy, Raj Panchapakesan, Salil Kapoor, Mohit Purohit, Raghu Gandadi, Aman Taneja, Rajneesh Chopra, Rajesh Ananthanarayan, etc.,
Question 4 Upcoming Fund Raising Events for Punjab Hospital
- Sept. 19 Dandiya Dedicated to Punjab Hospital
- Punjab Banquet on 14th Novemeber in San Ramon, Canyon View
- Punjab Banquet in NY/NJ in November
