Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation at the Isa Award
In February 2023, the co-founders of the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation, Mr Tej Kohli and Dr Sanduk Ruit, traveled to Bahrain to attend the Isa Award for Services to Humanity ceremony. The event was attended by several members of the Bahrainian government, including the Royal Family, who welcomed both founders.
Both Mr Kohli and Dr Ruit participated in the festivities surrounding the award ceremony, including the celebratory banquet where they discussed their plans to increase the number of surgeries performed by the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation over the next few years.
Dr Ruit was invited to the stage during the ceremony to receive the Isa Award from Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. The award includes a gold medal and a one million dollar prize for his contributions to humanity. In his speech, Dr Ruit expressed his gratitude to Tej Kohli and discussed their collaboration and the impact they have made on thousands of formerly cataract blind individuals worldwide. He pledged to perform half a million or more surgeries in the next five years for those who cannot afford or access the surgery.
The Speaker of the Council of Representatives, Ahmed bin Salman Al-Musallam, emphasized that the Isa Award for Service to Humanity reflects Bahrain’s commitment to kindness and generosity towards humanity, and is based on the leadership and care of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the support of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister. He also noted that the award contributes to the kingdom’s efforts to advance its civilisational initiatives and has gained international recognition for honoring outstanding projects that benefit communities and people.
The Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation was founded by Mr Tej Kohli and Dr Sanduk Ruit to combat untreated cataract blindness in the developing world, aiming to reduce extreme poverty and create lasting social and economic change. The foundation supports the #2030InSight mission, which seeks to make vision a key economic, social, and development issue and aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal to eradicate extreme poverty.
Since March 2021, the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation has supported over 30,000 people in Nepal, Ghana, and Bhutan, and has no plans to slow down. Receiving the Isa Award for Services to Humanity is a true honor and a major achievement for both the foundation and Dr Ruit personally. Mr Kohli expressed his admiration for Dr Ruit’s hard work and their successful partnership in achieving great things and truly changing the world.
The Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation was founded in March 2021 by London philanthropist Tej Kolhi and Kathmandu ‘God of Sight’ Dr Sanduk Ruit. As of November 2022 the NGO had screened 170,022 patients and cured 22,663of blindness at 91 outreach camps in Nepal, Bhutan and Ghana. The Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation is a restricted fund operating under the auspices of Prism The Gift Fund, registered UK charity number 1099682. The Foundation targets the #1 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of reducing poverty by making large-scale surgical interventions to cure blindness at the grassroots in the developing world. All treatments are provided completely free, with 100% of the funding coming from Tej Kohli and the Kohli family.
