MANAMA, JANUARY 17

Dr Sanduk Ruit, noted Nepali ophthalmologist, will receive the fifth edition of Isa award for service to humanity, a top civilian honour of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

'Nepali ophthalmologist, Dr Sanduk Ruit, was recognised for his service to the community and professional achievements with this award for 2021-2022,' Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, special representative of His Majesty the King, and Chairman of the Isa Award for Service to Humanity said while announcing the winner of the award in Manama this afternoon.

The biennial award will be presented at a ceremony to be held under the patronage of King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa at the Isa Cultural Centre in Manama next month. Dr Ruit receives a certificate of merit, a gold medal and USD one million cash in prize.

'There were 139 candidates for the award from all over the world, and the Board of Trustees worked tirelessly with the award secretariat and the arbitration committee, which was made up of international personalities with expertise and scholarly, legal, and academic competence in research and investigation, to determine who would receive the award based on their humanitarian work,' Sheikh Mohammed, said, adding that five candidates who met the prize's requirements were chosen for further consideration.

'The board of trustees for the award assessed the work of the five applicants and determined that a field work team would visit and investigate the achievements of the candidates in accordance with the award's regulations and the procedures followed.'

Board of Trustees considered the findings of the field research team's visits and decided that Dr Ruit's work was worthy of the Isa Award for Service to Humanity in its fifth session because of the originality of his efforts and his success, which is closer to the spirit of the criteria specified for presenting the award than the works of the other nominees, Secretary General of the Isa Award for Service to Humanity Ali Abdullah Khalifa said According to him, Dr Ruit, considered as the god of sight, also gained international acclaim for developing a novel approach to treating cataracts.

'He also succeeded in creating a new implantable lens that could be produced at a much lower price than its counterparts, allowing him to complete cataract surgery in significantly less time while cataracts can be surgically removed through tiny incisions in as little as five minutes, and replaced with an inexpensive artificial lens.

By not charging his low-income patients, Dr Ruit was able to save the sight of almost 120,000 people who would have otherwise gone blind, the research team observed while examining Dr Ruit's contribution. Dr Ruit, executive director of Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, performed more than 50,000 eye surgeries and procedures at no charge to those who otherwise couldn't afford them over the last 30 years. Over the past few years, Dr Ruit has led a team of ophthalmologists on a mission to several Asian and African countries, where they have treated the eyes of thousands of underprivileged patients and trained local doctors how to undertake the ground-breaking procedures they have developed.

According to the findings of field research, Dr Ruit's revolutionary surgical technique has helped cut the rate of preventable blindness in Nepal by nearly half while over 650 doctors from all over the world have been trained by him to follow in his footsteps, and he has taught them everything he has mastered in his fight against preventable blindness in order to ensure that more than 35 million surgeries have been conducted so far.

Dr Ruit, winner of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award in 2006, also co-founded the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation with a mission to cure half a million people of needless blindness in the developing world by 2030. He received the 'Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health' in 2007. The Government of Australia conferred on him 'The Order of Australia' in 2007. In 2014, he was awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation. In 2016, he was awarded the 'Asian Game Changer Award' by the Asia Society of New York. In 2017, he was picked by the Albert Einstein Foundation as one of the 'Hundred Leading Global Visionaries of the Century'.

In honour of the legacy of his great father, Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of the Kingdom of Bahrain, established the Isa Award for Service to Humanity in 2009 to raise public awareness of the remarkable humanitarian efforts taking place all around the world, as well as to encourage and motivate more individuals to take part in such efforts. The award was previously granted to Jemilah Mahmoud, the founder of Malaysian Medical Relief Society, Dr Achyuta Samanta, the founder of India's Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Children's Cancer Hospital Foundation in Arab Republic of Egypt, and EDHI Foundation of Pakistan.

A version of this article appears in the print on January 18, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.