<p>Dear family and friends,</p>
<p>This December marks the 15th anniversary of Akhand Jyoti.</p>
<p>They have been relentlessly working towards eliminating curable blindness from the poorest regions of India - Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh during the last 14 years of their existence.</p>
<p><strong>&nbsp;Akhand Jyoti has served over 12 million people in the low-income geographies.</strong></p>
<p>Sadly, the situation is still dire.&nbsp;&nbsp;There are over&nbsp;<strong>4.8 million visually challenged people still in Bihar</strong>, 2.8 million of who can get back their vision through a simple sight-restoring surgery.</p>
<p>AJEH is&nbsp;<strong>launching a new, 300-bed eye hospital</strong>, partly supported by their&nbsp;long-standing partner, Sankara Eye foundation, USA.</p>
<p><strong>The new facility, spread across 135,000 sq. ft. will provide eye care to 600-700 patients daily and do over 300 sight-restoring surgeries everyday.</strong></p>
<p><strong>This hospital in a decade would provide access to eye care to over 6 million people, sight-restoring surgeries to 600,000 people, 80% of which would be free of cost to the poor and dispense eyeglasses to 500,000 people.</strong></p>
<p>Such an initiative would ensure that the people still left behind with the backlog of curable blindness in Bihar, can be restored from scourge of blindness and would support our mission of making Bihar blind-free by 2026.</p>
<p>You can be a&nbsp;guardian angel on this journey. It is an opportunity for all of us to create and imbibe an everlasting legacy in the making. Your contribution towards the capital cost and construction of this brand-new facility will have your name etched on the wall of founders.</p>
<p><strong><em>I sincerely request you&nbsp;to&nbsp;give Bihar a chance and join us on this journey of creating excellence.</em></strong></p>
<p>Any amount, small or large that you wish to donate would help them to&nbsp;collectively achieve their milestones and leave behind our biggest legacy, in our lifetime, to some of the most deprived people in the region.</p>
<p>You can read about my site visit to this hospital here&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10156650829320991&amp;id=577815990">https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10156650829320991&amp;id=577815990</a></p>
<p>Thank you very much for your support!&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>