WALTHAM, MA—If it was not for Revathy Ramakrishna, the India New England Woman of the Year 2019, Vision-Aid would probably not exist today–at least not as a robust organization as it is now. During the recession of 2008 when the US economy was going down the hill and layoffs were everywhere, her husband and co-founder of Vision-Aid, Ram Raju asked her to shut down the organization.

At that time, Vision-Aid was a small organization running out of Mr. Raju’s home town in Vizag, India, benefiting people in that region. Ms. Ramakrishna persuaded her husband to not shut down the organization and instead expand it, and Mr. Raju gladly agreed.

Today, Vision-Aid is bringing light into the lives of over 1,000 visually impaired in 10 different locations across India each year. Vision-Aid partners include the Aravind Eye Care system, the largest eye care system in the world, Sankara Netralaya of Chennai, Nethra Blind Schools in Hyderabad and Vizag and other leaders in the field.

In an exclusive video interview with Chai With Manju, Ms. Ramakrishna talks about her vision of Vision-Aid, her family and her journey. Some Vision-Aid family members—Vision-Aid President Syed Ali Rizvi, Vision-Aid Founder Ram Raju, Vision-Aid Advisory Board Chair Puran Dang and Vision-Aid’s annual gala’s dance drama producer Madurai R. Muralidaran—also share their views on the role of Vision-Aid.

To watch the full interview, please click here, or on the image below.

Ms. Ramakrishna serves as the volunteer Vice-President for Vision-Aid, a 501(c)(3) non-profit which she and her husband Ram Raju co-founded in 2004. Vision-Aid serves the visually impaired by enabling, educating and empowering them to live their lives with independence and dignity.

The non-profit which they started (with the support of many friends and well-wishers in the area), has blossomed into an organization which has offered enablement, rehabilitation and skills training programs for thousands of blind and visually impaired across ten locations in India, besides also running several programs online through the Vision-Aid Online Academy.

Vision-Aid attracts many volunteers and today has over 100 dedicated volunteers in the US and India, in addition to the paid staff at the Vision-Aid centers in India, to support its mission, fund-raising and programs. As the co-founder and a senior executive of the organization, Ms. Ramakrishna is responsible for many aspects ranging from raising funds to mobilizing volunteers, managing key programs, and providing vision, strategy and leadership to keep it growing.

An Electronics engineer and Health Informatics professional by training, Ms. Ramakrishna also works as a Program Manager at Fresenius Medical Care North America, a premier health care company focused on delivering the highest quality care to people with chronic renal conditions. She has been with the company for over 10 years and oversees the Government Reporting and Clinical Informatics program related to specific CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) and CDC (Centers for Disease Control) government mandated quality and reimbursement initiatives that are aimed at improving the quality of health care and patient outcomes.