A Success!

Our heartfelt gratitude goes to all who made this surgery camp in Vientiane a success. A special thank you to our key partners, sponsors, medical team and an army of self funded volunteers from around the region whose support, dedication and generosity has brought back sight, reignited hope and transformed lives forever. We are literally making the world a brighter place.

We believe that charitable acts of kindness are done from our heart, out of compassion and love for others.
Sowing and planting goodness for the poor and disadvantaged is good for humanity and God’s gift to all.
Mother Teresa once said, “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”

Bringing The Brightest Sight To the Nations

The success of this program has fuelled our intention to do more for the community. Together with The Fred Hollows Foundation, we now have bigger plans to bring more comprehensive cataract surgery camps and eye care education across Laos, while continuing our efforts in Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, India and the broader religion.

To sustain and scale this effort, we invite supporters and volunteers to join us on this journey. Your contributions—whether financial, medical expertise, or your arms and legs help us change lives, one surgery at a time.

265 surgeries performed in 2.5 days.

This mission in Laos took nearly five months of dedicated planning, including several visits to Lao PDR to conduct reconnaissance, confirm locations, and establish partnerships with Mahosot Hospital.

The success of this initiative was driven by the invaluable support of Phongsavanh Foundation, part of Phongsavanh Bank, Fred Hollows Foundation and our many committed partners. From logistics and medical coordination to community outreach, every step was meticulously planned and executed ensure that this program delivered maximum impact.

Our original target was 200 surgeries in 3 full days. Thanks to the outstanding efforts of Dr Ruit, who performed the operations personally alongside Dr Bandana Khanal and the Nepalese team, nurses from Mahosot hospital and volunteers from Phongsavanh Foundation, Indonesia, Japan and from Singapore — we exceeded expectations, completing 265 surgeries in just 2.5 days.

Every patient we treat has a unique and moving story, but most have suffered from vision impairment for many years. Now, with sight restored, they can return to work, care for their family and live independently once again.

A Sight of Hope

ANV has been operating since 2010 and for the last 15 years we had operated over 30,000 patients who have all regained their eyesight. ANV was founded by Tan Ching Khoon, Effi Jono, Dr. Indra Wahadin, John Stuart and Dr. Sanduk Ruit from Tilganga hospital in Nepal and a group of dedicated volunteers to address curable blindness mainly in Indonesia, working in close collaboration with the military.
From its base in Medan, ANV has operated in Malang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Magelang, Maluku, Padang Sidempuan, Sibolga and many other cities across the archipelago. Since those early days we have expanded our operations bringing life changing surgeries to Laos, Cambodia, Bhutan, Myanmar, India and Nepal.

ANV has always believed in sharing our expertise and operating model with any charity seeking to combat curable blindness. We have been able to scale this very successfully through close and meaningful collaboration with different organisations in the host country.
As the first Singapore charity to make inroad into Indonesia in 2010 and Cambodia in 2017, we have actively introduced Tilganga and Dr Ruit to like-minded organisations, empowering them to bring this life-changing program to the communities they already serve.
To ensure long-term impact and momentum, we sponsor ophthalmologists from local communities to train in Nepal under Dr. Ruit, learning his refined surgical approach developed over five decades.
Additionally, we support the establishment of eye care information and education programs in provincial hospitals and community-based eyes centres, strengthening sustainable eye care solutions.
This event was attended by H.E. Dr. Bounfeng Phoummalaysith, Minister of Health, H.E. Sudesh Maniar, Singapore Ambassador to Lao PDR and other VIPs.