History

45 million people in India are visually handicapped. Of these 12 million are totally blind.

Venu is a service organisation that takes quality eye care to the doorstep of the visually afflicted, the majority of whom live below the poverty line in the urban slums and rural areas of India.

Started by late Dr R.K. Seth in 1980, Venu is a not for profit voluntary organisation. Venu believes that every individual has the right to equality and medical care. To this aim, Venu has developed it’s ideology to suit and include people with visual impairments.

Venu has been engaged in providing eye care in and around Delhi for 25 years. The story began in 1980, when the late Dr. R.K. Seth, a reputed ophthalmologist, decided to give up his flourishing practice of 15 years, for this humane cause. He conceived the dream of an organisation that would provide selfless eye care to the millions who were visually impaired, and began in a small place in South Delhi.

Venu literally means a flute and it carries the voice of hope to the blind and the voice of the blind to the rest of the world.

Significantly, the flute is made of the same bamboo reed used by the blind in India as their pathfinder. This fenestrated hollow bamboo reed becomes an ocean of sonorous musical notes, when someone breathes into it. Similarly, the color blue represents hope and white for peace. Venu, the organisation, becomes a Temple of Service when all concerned breathe themselves into it.

Prevention, cure, rehabilitation, training and spreading general awareness are the main functions of Venu. So the activities and events are geared towards identifying, treating and rehabilitating a person with visual affliction, even if he cannot afford it.