A Cure For The Future | The Tej Kohli Blog

When I look back at my career, I am able to recognise all that has led to me to where I currently am in terms of my philanthropic efforts. From early on, I have always aimed towards supporting others and marginalised communities. Amassing such success and putting it towards something that will make a change is the reason I invest in so much. Looking at today and recognising what is wrong and changing that for the future is the most important part of thinking forwards.

Having the Kohli name mean something in terms of support is something that I will strive to do for the rest of my career and life. The success we have had so far with efforts of support across the world has exceeded our expectations.

Restarting my career from the ground up, I found myself in Costa Rica. It was here that I began to fund and support the communities children to eat. My goal was to feed 1000 children which led to many more. It was here that FundaKohli was started, the longest-serving organisation from the Tej Kohli Foundation.

Throughout my career, I have always strived to make a difference and make an effort to help those less fortunate. This is why the many philanthropic endeavours I have ventured into have been my main focus.

The latest organisation that seeks to support those in need is the Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundation. This organisation is a partnership between world-renowned ophthalmologist Dr Sanduk Ruit and myself. Together, we have ventured out into some of the most remote and impoverished areas of Nepal and, along with partner hospitals and doctors, completed over 15 thousand surgeries over the course of a year.

Going across the world and meeting people who suffer from ailments such as cataract blindness, I soon became very aware that these communities were suffering needlessly. Each and every person we screened and cured could have been healed a long time prior to our arrival. We often take for granted what we have access to, without being aware that in lots of other regions of the world people simply do not have access to necessities like healthcare.

When speaking of our achievements over the last year, my co-founder, Dr Ruit, stated that it has always been his mission to fight poverty by increasing the accessibility of healthcare throughout poor regions across the globe. Dr Ruit suffered with loss from a young age. This caused him to look for ways to create sustainable developments in healthcare and medicine in remote regions.

Looking forward, we are planning where to take intervention next. There are several countries that suffer at the hand of avoidable blindness, causing them to fall into an unbreakable cycle of poverty and despair. It is our job to take our practices and support into as many countries and regions as possible to allow those communities to become whole again.

Our aim is to travel across Asia and Africa into countries such as Ethiopia, Indonesia and Myanmar. The future holds many possibilities, but the one that I am certain of is the amount of people we are to cure over the next year.

The amount of people we have helped cure in Nepal over the last year is extraordinary. With our goal of 300,000–500,000 people cured by 2026, it is clear that the team will certainly reach that, if not exceed it.

Given that Dr Ruit's new innovative surgery has influenced doctors across the world, it is only a matter of time until we see more change happening across the world.

I am especially proud of everything the Tej Kohli and Ruit Foundation has gone on to achieve and it makes me proud to see those who we supported prosper once again.

For more information on Tej Kohli as a philanthropist visit tejkohliruit.com and to read more of his views go to his Medium.

To read about Tej Kohli as an investor visit Kohli Ventures.

Find out more about Tej Kohli: Tej Kohli the technologist investing in human triumph, Tej Kohli the philanthropist trying to cure the developing world of cataracts and Tej Kohli the London tycoon with a generous streak.