Close your eyes for a few moments and in the darkness realize how important it is to be able to see. Now imagine they were to stay closed, condemning you to a dark prison forever. This is the reality faced by the blind throughout their lives. Around one-fifth of the world’s blind live in India. Agonizingly, a substantial portion of these patients suffer from curable forms of blindness. Poverty and a lack of awareness prevent large numbers of people from benefiting from low-cost preventive measures, as well as simple remedies for vision-loss. To provide affordable but high quality eye care to the poor, the Sankara Eye Society (SES) was started in May 1977 in Coimbatore, India by the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Trust. Today, over 1000 patients, are treated daily, without regard to caste, creed and other divisions in society, the only basis for treatment is the need for vision.
