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To build a vertically integrated healthcare services in third world countries with best global practices that values all
patients as equals.
To train the healthcare professionals to treat & cure and educate patients to improve quality of life and health in developing countries by leveraging on knowledge, technology & humility.
The Founders of the Viraj Healthcare Foundation (VHF) Limited strongly believe in helping the poor and underprivileged with their health and eyesight. VHF is established to encourage healthcare specialists in helping those at need with local visits and sustainable projects to build healthcare clinics or upgrade existing facilities in India and other third world countries. Where possible, the VHF will collaborate with other charities and organisations who have similar missions. Major area of focus of VHF will be ageing and health. The diseases related to reversible blindness such as refractive error, cataract, glaucoma, age related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy will be the major areas, where VHF will be working with team of health care professionals globally.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Wise words from Mahatma Gandhi that aptly sum up the events which led to me to my current work. I have always enjoyed connecting with my community through humanitarian work, and this compelled me to dedicate my personal time and resources towards improving the circumstances of those that were less fortunate. This motivation drove me to attend medical school, and subsequently to my career as a Clinician and Researcher in Ophthalmology. Understandably, as I gained skills and experience over the years, my involvement in community service evolved to capitalise on my capabilities. This led me through a myriad of initiatives, from volunteering to provide non-profit eye screenings and education, all the way to helping to organise overseas mission trips to perform cataract surgery and other procedures for those living in resource-limited settings and at the same time empowering the local healthcare professionals by skill transfer. This also led me to dedicate some of my professional work to pursue my academic career and research in underfunded diseases that disproportionately affect the poor. These include the infectious disease, Tuberculosis, and its counterpart in the eye – ocular tuberculosis and also ocular trauma – both of which affect the underprivileged in the community. I have done formal fellowships in both this topics to understand the impact of this diseases to the community.I have spent a large part of my time researching these diseases over the past 5 years, in hopes of improving global diagnostic and management practices for this poorly understood disease by empowering care providers to provide better and evidence-based care. I have hence rolled out a large global consortium of COTS for ocular TB and IGATES for ocular trauma.
These efforts of mine are not without personal reward. As Mahatma Gandhi has shared, these experiences strengthen my resolve, help me understand my personal views and priorities, and help me appreciate the happy and healthy family that I have been blessed with. I see each project as an opportunity to leave behind a legacy for our children’s generation to carry on in the spirit of community and togetherness. As such, I often also engage youth in these events to give them the necessary exposure and opportunity to experience for themselves the joy of giving. While many may aspire to an early retirement in this day and age, I see myself on the contrary. I can only imagine having lived a happy and fulfilling life by dedicating some of my time to the community, and thereby also finding myself.
Rupesh
(Co-Founder)
