Ruparelia Foundation Invested UGX 1.7 Billion in Bukedea Eye Camp to Confront Uganda’s Silent Blindness Crisis

By Gad Masereka 

Uganda is confronting a public health emergency in plain sight. An estimated 2.5 million Ugandans live with moderate to severe visual impairment. More than 150,000 are completely blind. The majority of these cases involve conditions that are preventable or treatable, yet the resources to address them have rarely reached the communities that need them most.

It is against this backdrop that the Ruparelia Foundation, with support from a coalition of corporate and institutional partners, committed UGX 1.7 billion to the Rajiv Ruparelia Memorial Eye Camp in Bukedea District, held from March 27 to 29 at Bukedea Teaching Hospital. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees described the investment as both a deliberate response to a national health challenge and a personal tribute to the late Rajiv Ruparelia, son of businessman Sudhir Ruparelia, whose belief in community service shaped the camp’s mission.

Cataracts alone account for over 57 percent of blindness cases in Uganda, and many of those affected live in rural areas where surgical care is inaccessible without long and costly journeys to urban centres. The Bukedea camp addressed this directly by establishing surgical theatres and treatment services on-site, allowing patients to receive cataract surgeries, screenings, eyeglasses and medication without leaving their communities.

Organisers projected that the three-day outreach would screen at least 2,000 patients, conduct approximately 300 surgeries including 50 specialised procedures for children, and distribute more than 800 pairs of glasses. Medical teams from Mulago National Referral Hospital and C-Care led the clinical operations, supported by volunteers and supplies contributed by partners including Joban Group, Royal Pharma, SINO-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park, Pepsi, Rotary Clubs of Nsangi and Mbale, Victoria University, and several other private sector institutions.

Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, whose own connection to Bukedea gave the camp particular political and community resonance, pledged UGX 50 million at the launch event held at Kabira Country Club on March 10. Her contribution was among the highest-profile expressions of support for an initiative that had already attracted wide attention.

The Foundation’s trustees framed the investment in terms that went beyond healthcare statistics. Children who cannot see clearly cannot learn effectively. Parents whose vision has deteriorated lose their livelihoods. Elderly citizens retreat into isolation when preventable blindness goes untreated. The Bukedea Eye Camp was designed to interrupt all three of those trajectories, and in doing so, to carry forward the values that defined Rajiv Ruparelia’s short but purposeful life.