With sitar player Surinder Mann providing background music, Amber India Restaurant providing hors d'oeuvres such as samosa and salmon dill tikka, and two models in saris showing off the latest Elsa Peretti jewelry designs, Feb. 3 was an evening of recognition for the Sankara Eye Foundation, USA.

Brian Neel, director of the Tiffany's at Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair, and Murali Krishnamurthy, board chairman and one of the founders of the group, welcomed 75 donors who had contributed $1,000 or more in 2004.

Krishnamurthy gets right to the point when he talks about Sankara's "Vision 20/20 by the Year 2020 for India" project.

"We want to eradicate curable blindness in India," he says. "It's not impossible; we're here to achieve it."

Krishnamurthy points to the success of the three hospitals in India funded thus far by American donors.

"We're doing 56,000 free eye surgeries a year in those three hospitals and this year we'll exceed 60,000," he says.

The majority of the surgeries are for cataracts.

Krishnamurthy estimates there are as many as 45 million visually handicapped people in India in need of cataract surgery. "Our goal is to build 20 hospitals throughout India, each performing up to 50,000 eye surgeries a year," he says.

Sankara asks for donations in two areas.

A $30 donation underwrites one surgery and Krishnamurthy says, "We are meticulous. Our donor gets a receipt within a month and we show them what their $30 has done. We tell them who got the eye surgery on which eye and what village they live in."

He also asks for donations to build more hospitals. Anyone who donates $1,000 has their name inscribed on the Wall of Founders for the hospital.

While Sankara works to establish new hospitals, the group also works to make them self-supporting.

Krishnamurthy says if they are good hospitals with qualified staffing, they will attract patients who can pay, which then supports free care for those who cannot pay.

He estimates that if 25 percent of the patients at a hospital pay, Sankara will underwrite care for the 75 percent who can't, with some government subsidies.

Neel says he met Krishnamurthy through Kamal Nihilani, who works as a sales associate in his Tiffany store.

"Kamal and her husband Mahesh are involved with Sankara and she introduced me to Murali," says Neel.

"They do a really vital service," Neel says. "They're doing a wonderful job, but they don't get the recognition they deserve considering what they accomplish.

"Their passion for it and their enthusiasm for it was contagious to me."

Neel says of India, "In that society, in that nation, if someone gets cataracts in their 40s, they're blind. It's a health issue for individuals and it affects the entire family."

Sankara was found in 1977 by a group of Rotarians in India.

Krishnamurthy says his uncle is a longtime volunteer there and kept asking him to get involved. "In 1997 my brother visited the hospital where my uncle volunteers and he found good, excellent work and very devoted people. He came back and convinced me to start work here," he says.

It took a year to establish nonprofit status for Sankara Eye Foundation, USA. Since 1998, the group has grown to five chapters around the country and raised more than $3 million.

"New energy came to me," says Krishnamurthy, adding that he believes he has found his calling in life.

A software engineer, Krishnamurthy estimates he puts in at least 40 hours of volunteer time for Sankara each week. He credits his wife Kala with helping his work and also with keeping their family on course.

"She is very selfless, allowing me to devote all my time to Sankara," he says.

For additional information on the Sankara Eye Foundation, USA, visit www.giftofvision.org or call toll-free to 866.726.5272.