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Eighteen months ago, amidst a raging COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders, Manita’s vision began to deteriorate. She couldn’t seek immediate medical attention. Her husband, who worked in Kathmandu’s informal construction sector, had lost his job due to the pandemic and the family was sustaining themselves with very limited resources.

Across Nepal, many people live in impoverished conditions, often unable to escape the economic struggle. With the addition of the lack of sustainable healthcare and social structure in rural areas, many are left unable to work due to illness and disease that they are unable to cure. The lack of resources has left thousands of people with untreated cataracts — leaving them needlessly blind. The Tej Kolhi and Ruit Foundation have made it their mission to lead the way to curing this avoidable issue by 2030.

On the second day of the Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundation microsurgical camp in Dolakha, Nepal, a ten year old girl arrived at the camp with her father. Visibly nervous, she clutched on to her father’s hand as the ophthalmic assistant asked her about her vision.

In early 2021 Dr Sanduk Ruit partnered with Tej Kohli to launch the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation, a charity focused on providing treatment and cures for cataract blindness within some of the world’s poorest communities. The charity publishes stories about changed lives on Medium and on YouTube. Yet one of the greatest life stories is that of Dr Sanduk Ruit himself…

The Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundation believes that good eyesight is a universal right and that people from all sections of society should have the opportunity to access treatments that enable them to see clearly. The foundation have screened 407 inmates and completed nine surgeries to cure blindness at Banke District Prison in Nepal.