Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation co-founder wins Isa Award
Earlier this week it was announced that our very own ‘God of sight’ will receive the prestigious Isa Award for service to humanity, a top civilian honour from the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Special Representative of His Majesty the King and Chairman of the Isa Award said that: “The Nepali ophthalmologist, Dr Sanduk Ruit, was recognised for his service to the community and professional achievements with this award for 2021–2022.”
The award is to be presented and celebrated in a ceremony held under patronage of his Majesty the King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa at the Isa Cultural Centre in Manama in February. Our co-founder, Dr Ruit will be awarded with a certificate, a gold medal and $1 million cash prize.
Dr Ruit was chosen out of over 130 candidates from all over the world. The Board of Trustees worked with an award secretariat and an arbitration committee made up of international experts, scholars and legal professionals to make the decision of who was most deserving of the award.
Dr Ruit is being celebrated for his innovative method of curing cataracts in a low-cost, effective and quick surgery. In 2006, Dr. Ruit won the esteemed Ramon Magsaysay Award, and later founded the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation, whose aim is to help half a million people suffering from avoidable blindness in the developing world by 2030. In 2007, he received the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health, as well as the Order of Australia from the Government of Australia. Two years later, he was granted Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation, and in 2016, he earned the Asian Game Changer Award from the Asia Society of New York. In 2017, the Albert Einstein Foundation chose him as one of the Hundred Leading Global Visionaries of the Century.
King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa, created the Isa Award in honour of the legacy of his father, Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa to raise awareness of the outstanding humanitarian efforts that occur all over the world whilst serving as encouragement to others around the world to take part in humanitarian efforts.
Our biggest congratulations go out to our co-founder Dr Sanduk Ruit!
