Vadrevu (V.K.) Raju, MD, FRCS, FACS
Morgantown, West Virginia

For the past four decades, Dr. Raju has been on a crusade to eliminate avoidable blindness in parts of the world plagued by poverty and poor access to medical care.  Born in India, he earned his medical degree from Andrah University and completed an ophthalmology residency and fellowship at the Royal Eye Group of Hospitals in London, England.  He is board certified in ophthalmology and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons.  He is currently a clinical professor at West Virginia University, the Section Chief of the Ophthalmology Department at Monongalia General Hospital and runs a private practice. 

Dr. Raju is the founder and medical director of the Eye Foundation of America (EFA). World-class state-of-the art services are rendered through traveling eye camps and permanent brick-and-motor hospitals built by the EFA including the Goutami Eye Institute that Dr. Raju helped found in 2006.  Since the inception of the EFA, these camps and institutes have facilitated over 600 physician exchanges, trained more than 200 ophthalmologists, served 2 million patients and performed 300,000 vision-saving surgeries in 21 countries operating on three guiding principles: service, teaching and research. 

In children, the man focus of efforts by the EFA, the gift of sight results in 75 years of a full and productive life.  No child will be denied treatment and children from around the world can come to receive world-class services. Dr. Raju has said "If blindness is preventable, then let us do it big." 

The Global Medical Missions Hall of Fame is honored to recognize Dr. V.K. Raju in the Class of 2017.