West Virginia University Department of Ophthalmology Clinical Professor and Founder-President of The Eye Foundation of America in Morgantown, West Virginia, V.K. Raju is being honoured for his lifelong dedicated service in eradicating blindness among children at a one day conference on “Prevention of Blindness in Childhood and beyond,” to be held in Vijayawada on October 27, Rotary Club of Vijayawada past district governor K Pattabhi Ramaiah said.
Dr Raju has performed eye surgeries free of cost on 3,00,000 patients that includes 25,000 children, in a span of four decades.
What started as a make-shift rural eye camp by Dr Raju in Vijayawada in 1977 with the help of Rotary Clubs has now grown into a mass global non-profit healthcare movement with free eye surgeries being performed in 25 countries with over 250 camps in Vijayawada alone.
He specializes and priorities in preventing blindness in infants and children as he feels that their contribution to the society may last 70 to 75 years .
Dr. Raju was the recipient of the President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement during the 2017 West Virginia State Medical Association Healthcare Summit this past August. He is also the recipient with American Medical Association Foundation’s Dr Nathen Davis International Award in Medicine. He also received Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman Award.
He received his medical degree at Andhra University in India, and then traveled to the University of London to complete an ophthalmology residency and fellowship.
