On September 24, the Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF) will host the Be The Light Gala, a fundraising event to help eradicate curable blindness in India. The gala will be held at Cipriani 42nd Street, starting at 6:30 p.m.

The Be The Light Gala looks to help SEF meet its Vision 2030 goal, which is to provide 1 million eye surgeries each year at no cost to the patients. More than 45 million people in India are visually impaired, with 12 million of them blind. SEF USA will be performing approximately 300,000 free eye surgeries this year at its eleven Sankara Eye Hospitals and ten partner eye hospitals.

“If we are able to treat 80% of those who are visually impaired, that would be a significant accomplishment,” said Murali Krishnamurthy, Founder and Executive Chairman, Sankara Eye Foundation, USA. “Considering the vast need in India, and the low cost and efficiency of providing these surgeries, the money we raise will truly, positively impact the lives of tens of thousands of people. That is why this event is so important to us. We want to reach out to the children and adults in the underserved rural areas in India who are in desperate need of having these surgical procedures performed.”

The keynote speakers will be BV Jagadeesh, Managing Partner, KAAJ Ventures, and Warren Foust, Worldwide President, Johnson & Johnson Vision – Surgical Vision.

Mr. Jagadeesh is an active investor, having successfully invested and guided companies such as Nutanix, Yodlee, Arkin, Elastic Box, NetMagic Solutions, Ocarina Networks and Ankeena. Before founding KAAJ, he served as a Founding Investor and CEO of NetScaler, a company that was later sold to Citrix. Mr. Jagadeesh later served as Group Vice President and General Manager for Citrix’s Application Networking division.

Mr. Foust currently serves as the Worldwide President of the Surgical Vision business at Johnson & Johnson Vision, and is a member of the Johnson & Johnson Vision Leadership Team. He leads a team of passionate people who are dedicated to delivering innovation that enables eye care professionals to create better outcomes for patients throughout their lives. With more than two decades of global healthcare industry experience and surgical medical device expertise, Mr. Foust has dedicated his career to championing excellence in patient outcomes and serving unmet medical needs.

In addition, entertainment will be provided by members of the AATMA Performing Arts dancing school and singing sensation Jeffrey Iqbal. As the first American-born Bollywood singer, Mr. Iqbal has performed in over 30 countries and can be seen on Zee TV and Star Plus.

Individual tickets are $250 apiece. Tables of 10 are available for $2,000 and VIP tables of 10 cost $10,000. Sponsorships are also available. To purchase tickets, to RSVP or for sponsorship opportunities, visit www.giftofvision.org/MegaGalaSept24.

Cipriani is located at 110 East 42nd Street, New York, New York. For more information, or to donate, call 1 (866) SANKARA (726-5272) or visit www.giftofvision.org.

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About The Sankara Eye Foundation
With locations in the United States and India, the Sankara Eye Foundation reaches out to those in the poorer, rural parts of India and provides them with eye care free of charge by building fully operational, self-sufficient specialty eye care hospitals across India. The goal is to eradicate curable blindness in India and meet its Vision 2030 initiative, which is to provide 1 million free eye surgeries each year. For more information, or to donate, call 1 (866) SANKARA (726-5272) or visit www.giftofvision.org.