Shiv Gyan Moti Lal (SGML) Eye Hospital, USA organised fundraising followed by a gala dinner and musical extravaganza on Sunday, Nov. 13, in New Jersey.
The event which was attended by more than 300 people, helped in raising more than US$50,000 fund for building a new eye hospital near Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh in 2023.
The new hospital will have access to modern technology and equipment for eye care in rural India. Tushar B. Patel, president of the SGML Hospital, in his welcome message to the audience, outlined the organization's goals and mission, which included reducing disparity of eye care and making it accessible to all with the new eye hospital in Hasampura, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Delicious snacks and an eclectic dance performance by a well-known dance ensemble added excitement to the evening function. The evening was rocked for more than three hours by the musicians and playback singers Mahesh Mehta and Rekha Raval.
In his speech, Patel noted that the Ujjain district is home to more than 800,000 partially blind people and more than 25,000 blind people. There is an urgent need for eye care because of the huge gap between the existing facilities and what is needed, say for simple cataract surgery. There is a backlog of 20 to 30,000 procedures, with patients waiting for six months or more to receive basic eye care.
