Every Support Matters By Trishikh Dasgupta 21st Aug 2020

In our 14 years of existence, we at Akhand Jyoti have touched the lives of more than 12 million indigent people. Our work has not only restored vision but also the hopes and livelihoods of the poor. 

The eye care service we provide is affordable, accessible, and sustainable. 80% of the sight-restoring surgeries we do are free for poor patients, which is made possible through the constant support of our donors and well-wishers. Individuals from both within and beyond the border have donated to our cause time and again. 

Through the following paragraphs, we have tried to recognise individuals and organisations who have supported us in various ways in the financial year 2019-2020.

Saluting the Indian diaspora in Singapore

Between 2nd – 11th March 2019, Akhand Jyoti undertook to start its 1st overseas fundraising event in Singapore. This was made possible through help from BridgeAble, Ms. Richa Menke and Mr. Jayesh Parekh, Member Advisory Board, Akhand Jyoti.

Over the next 9 months the large hearted Indian diaspora in Singapore supported us to provide sight-restoring surgeries to thousands of poor blind people in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh:

1. Agrocorp IndiaTrade Services Pvt. Ltd.
2. Anand Satyamurthy
3. Anantha and Ramya Nageswaran
4. Anu Agarwal
5. Asha and Anil Dixit
6. Ashwin Jayaram
7. Bakul and Swati Parikh
8. Bhaskar Jayaraman and Archana Bhaskar
9. Devika Misra
10. Divya Verma Patel & Saahil Vasant Patel
11. Girija Pande
12. Gopal Rai Mandhania
13. Hridaan Popuri
14. Jag and Subhash Arora
15. Jain Society Ladies Wing
16. Kanchana Gupta
17. Kaushik and Harsha Shaparia
18. Kavitha Iyer and Irvin Sequeira
19. Kumar and Krithika Radhakrishnan
20. Kusum Sharma
21. Madhuli and Prem Kumar
22. Manisha Garg
23. Monica Abrol
24. Mousumi Bhat
25. NE Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
26. Paromita and Sameer Mehta
27. Parul Singhai
28. Parul Thakker
29. Raj and Gayatri Sriram
30. Rajesh Sachdeva
31. Sumita Ambasta
32. Adam Fiore
33. Ranodeb Roy
34. Richa Menke
35. Sagarika and Sandeep Sen
36. Sam Shergill
37. Sandhya and Sanjay Kothary
38. Sangini Shroff
39. Sanjay and Madhuben Doshi
40. Shalini and Alok Sinha
41. Shameeli Sinha
42. Shirdi Sai Worship Centre Ltd.
43. Shital Raiyani and Nilesh Jassani
44. Suketu Shah
45. Sunil and Sushmitha Popuri
46. Tarun and Priti Kataria
47. Venky Krishnakumar
48. Vikas and Manisha Gattani
49. Smt. & Late Shree Hiranand Vishindas Farswani
50. Seema & Yogesh Farswani

'Light a Life' campaign

Ramya Nageswaran from Singapore, on the eve of ‘World Sight Day 2019’, created Akhand Jyoti’s 1st Online Fundraising Campaign – ‘Light A Life’ and raised fund from 72 kind-hearted individuals to gift eyesight to 208 indigent people from Bihar.

Teaching girls self-defence 

In April 2019, Jag & Subhash Arora made an incredible effort to send martial arts instructors, Ms. Qin Yunquan and Nicole Toe from Singapore to train our girls in the art of self-defence. The goal was to further develop their self-confidence and increase their physical fitness.

Our youngest donor

9-year-old Hridaan Popuri studying at standard 3, from Singapore, became our youngest donor by donating his sole piggy bank savings to gift eyesight to two underprivileged blind patients.

Support for the new optical unit

Shirdi Sai Worship Centre Ltd., Singapore funded the optical dispensing unit at our upcoming 40-bed hospital at the remote location of Purnea in Bihar. Many thanks to Shobha Punukollu and BridgeAble for initiating this support.

Committed for life, committed to sight

Sanjukta Sen and Richard overwhelmed us by creating a fundraiser requesting their friends to donate to Akhand Jyoti instead of giving them any other wedding gift for their marriage in February 2020. Their campaign helped us provide sight-restoring surgeries to 121 rural underprivileged individuals. Our heartfelt gratitude to the couple and we wish them a very happy journey ahead.

A new beginning with a new thought

Vandana and Sunny took a wonderful initiative on their wedding to raise funds to restore the sight of the poor. They requested all guests not to bring them gifts but to make donations to support sight-restoring surgeries.

Help for the 100-bed new girls' hostel

Sandhya and Sanjay Kothary partly supported the construction of our new 100-bed girl’s hostel. After completion of this new hostel, 100 more underprivileged rural girls can be inducted into our programme and would get a shot at a better life. 

Helping us spread out - Vision centre expansions

Our vision centres enable us to grow geographically. They help us spread out strategically and reach out to more patients in rural areas. Every vision centre we build is estimated to annually provide primary eye screening to 7,800 people, refer free surgeries to 800 patients and dispense spectacles to 2,400 people.

We plan to launch 8 new Vision Centres by March 2021 and have already received support for 5 of them. We are gratefull for the generous support extended by the following kind-hearted patrons:

1. Asha Dixit
2. Bharat Shah
3. Harish Nim
4. Jayakumar Ganapaty
5. Jayesh Parekh
6. Vasant Rathi
7. Mayur Ghelani
8. Sam Shergil

Selling cards to gift vision

Our young friend, Antara Chowdhary from Singapore designed customised greeting cards with beautiful messages in the new year 2020 and sold those to raise fund to support sight-restoring surgeries of 14 poor blind patients in Bihar. She has really won our hearts with her kind gesture.

Book launch lights lives

Jayesh Parekh, Member, Advisory Board, Akhand Jyoti, authored and launched the book "What Shall We Do With All This Money?" in February 2020. 

The sale proceeds of which are being utilised to gift sight to underprivileged blind patients in Bihar and help them emerge out of the curse of blindness.

Find out more about the book here: https://allthismoney.com/

You can get hold of your copy here:

India - https://amzn.to/36UXJNt

Singapore - https://s.lazada.sg/s.8eUp

USA - https://amzn.to/2QeA7ge

'The Food Express'

The CoronaVirus (COVID-19) crisis had resulted in many poor people from Bihar, including migrant workers, struggling for two square meals a day. Akhand Jyoti distributed food packets to such needy families in the community since the outbreak of the COVID-19 and the lockdown mandated by the government.

Through this initiative, we distributed 28,912 ration kits during this period.

The following individuals and organisations supported us in this drive:

1. Anil Dixit
2. Anil Poddar
3. Anuj Jain
4. Anu Agarwal
5. Bansidhar Baijnath Jalan Seva Trust
6. Borun Ghorai
7. DORAI Foundation
8. Dr K R Shroff Foundation
9. Girija Prasad Pande
10. Girish Pamnani
11. Kirtida Mekani
12. Mahindra Kanji
13. Mala Nalwa
14. Mandeep Nalwa
15. Manju Gang
16. Mona J Parekh
17. Ninita Agarwal
18. Nilesh Shah
19. Preetie Kohli
20. Radha Aiyer
21. Raj Sriram
22. Rajesh Rawani
23. Reena Devpura
24. S. Majumdar
25. Saahil Patel
26. Sapna
27. Saurabh Srivastava
28. Shalini Sinha
29. Shivani Thapar
30. Suketu Shah
31. Sunder Sham Chanrai
32. Veenapani Sekseria
33. Vinod Aachi
34. Vipul Shantilal Shah
35. Vishal B Doshi

Others who have helped us too

Our following generous supporters have contributed in different ways in FY 2019-2020 to help us achieve our vision and mission:

1. Aadarsh Baijal
2. Advanced Enzyme Technology 
3. Amita Mehta Trust
4. Amrit Vasudeva Trust
5. Ananth and Ramya Nageswaran
6. Ashoka Pte. Ltd.
7. Bansidhar Baijnath Jalan Seva Trust
8. Borun Ghorai
9. Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd.
10. Dorai Foundation
11. Genuine Interest Ltd. 
12. Mandeep Nalwa
13. Mona J. Parekh
14. Naveen Bhat
15. Nilesh Arvind Parekh
16. Nilesh Shah 
17. Pratul Shroff
18. Ramesh Shah
19. Rohit Arora
20. Sunder Sham Chanrai
21. Sunil and Sushmitha Hridaan Popuri
22. Veenapani Sekseria

We would like to sincerely thank all our large hearted supporters for their continued faith in our work and for supporting us in our efforts to make lives of the underprivileged better by restoring sight, life and hope.

With the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we like the rest of the world have been forced to change and adapt our ways. Now more than ever we need the support of our friends and well-wishers. Your support will help us shape many more lives.