Awarded For Giving Sight

Veteran ophthalmologist Dr. Sanduk Ruit, has been selected for the prestigious ISA award in recognition of his outstanding services to humanity. Instituted in 2009 in the name of the former King of Bahrain, Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the award is handed every two years to an individual or organisation dedicated to the area of human welfare from across the world. The ISA Award for Service to Humanity Organisation has been presenting this award since 2013. Dr. Ruit has been rendering services to humanity by reducing the rate of preventable blindness by half with the application of an inexpensive treatment method. Renowned at home and abroad for his immense contribution to preventing blindness through cataract surgery, Dr. Ruit is a great national figure. As the recipient of the fifth edition of this award, Dr. Ruit will be awarded USD one million (NRs.131 million), a gold medal and a certificate in February. On Tuesday, Sheikh Mohammad bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, who is a member of the royal family, announced Dr. Ruit as the winner of the award amidst a ceremony organised in Bahrain's capital, Manama. 

The Isa awardees are selected through a rigorous process by an expert panel of jurists. At the start, as many as 145 individuals and organisations were nominated for the award. Among them, six people/organisations were shortlisted. The nominees included the US-based charity Mercy Ship, Bangladesh's Friendship NGO, Colombian Camilo Jose Hereya, Kenyan Nzambi Mati, Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO) Foundation and Dr. Ruit. The jurists, who included a group of distinguished individuals such as scientists, professors and former politicians, finally selected Dr. Ruit for the award. In the wake of the shortlisting of the six persons and organisations for the award, the selection panel members and researchers had visited the countries where the candidates were working and received necessary information about their activities. 

The jurists were highly impressed by Dr. Ruit. He had gone to Australia where he could have stayed permanently. Because of his academic excellence, he could live a comfortable life by settling in America or he could have invented expensive tools to treat eye patients with. But instead of doing all that, he stayed in his motherland and invented lenses that make treatment accessible to everyone. The panel states: "Dr. Ruit also did not limit the accessibility of this treatment to just Nepal, he brought it to the whole world. We have chosen him to support his work on human welfare." He has been selected for this award because of his initiative that has enabled a large number of people with blindness to see the world. His innovative treatment method has been recognised worldwide as it has become a panacea for millions of people in Asia and other parts of the world. 

Dr. Ruit is highly commended not only for inventing intraocular lenses but also making them available at reasonable prices. Without his novel initiative and devotion, many people with blindness in Nepal and other developing nations would not have been able to see the light of the day. This year, Isa Award for Service to Humanity has resumed the award following a four-year gap owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The preceding recipients of this award included Malaysian physician Jamila Mahmood (2013), Indian social worker and educationist Achyut Samant (2015), Children's Cancer Hospital in Egypt (2017) and Edhi Foundation in Pakistan (2019).  He is really a great source of inspiration for young generations to work for the welfare of humanity. Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has congratulated Dr. Ruit for receiving the prestigious award.