HelpMeSee is pleased to announce its selection as one of two featured nonprofits for the speaker gift donation at the annual International Finance Corporation’s Global Private Equity Conference in association with EMPEA. The 2016 conference will be held during May 9 – 12th at The Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC.
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers cataract surgery among the most cost-effective health interventions. Yet in spite of this fact and a proven and affordable surgical cure, an estimated 102 million people remain blind or disabled from untreated cataract. HelpMeSee is implementing a social-enterprise model to build local capacity within partner countries, increase training of medical professionals and expand access to sight-restoring eye care for underserved communities.
“HelpMeSee is privileged to be recognized by the Global Private Equity Conference as a social enterprise focused on solving the challenge of access and affordability of quality cataract surgery worldwide,” said Jacob Mohan Thazhathu, HelpMeSee’s President and CEO. “HelpMeSee is focused on emerging markets and private equity capital is fundamental to the successful expansion of affordable eye care for all.”
Robert van Zwieten, President and CEO of EMPEA, commented in response to the selection of the organization, “Economic empowerment for the 102 million fellow human beings in this world who are blind or disabled due to cataract starts by getting them the affordable cataract surgery pioneered by HelpMeSee. Just when the institutional investors who took part in EMPEA’s annual Global Limited Partner Survey highlighted health care as the most attractive sector in which to invest via emerging markets private equity in 2016, HelpMeSee fits the profile of a social enterprise showcasing how superior technological and process innovation and local capacity-building can bring affordable and high-quality eye care to underserved communities in our markets.”
The conference is in its 18th year and convenes over 800 attendees representing over 60 countries. A donation was made on behalf of all the 100+ speaker faculty at the conference to both HelpMeSee and Ashoka, whose mission is to catalyze the world’s leading social entrepreneurs and ignite a generation of changemakers to help sustain and support large-scale social change.
This year’s attendees include senior investment professionals and representatives from international finance institutions, endowments, public and pension funds, law firms and various government agencies. Akin Gump, Amethis Finance, Clearwater Capital Partners, Everstone, EY, Gulf Capital and Swicorp are all lead sponsors at this year’s event.
About EPMEA
EMPEA is the global industry association for private capital in emerging markets. We are an independent non-profit organization with over 300 member firms, comprising institutional investors, fund managers and industry advisors, who together manage more than US$1 trillion of assets and have offices in more than 100 countries across the globe. Our members share EMPEA’s belief that private capital is a highly suited investment strategy in emerging markets, delivering attractive long-term investment returns and promoting the sustainable growth of companies and economies. We support our members through global authoritative intelligence, conferences, networking, education and advocacy. For more information, visit www.empea.org.
About HelpMeSee
HelpMeSee is a non-profit social enterprise working to end the global health crisis of cataract blindness. Through a focus on surgical training and technology innovation, HelpMeSee is building a sustainable solution to the leading cause of blindness. Since 2012, HelpMeSee has supported nearly 250,000 sight-restoring procedures through partnerships across nine countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. For more information, visit www.helpmesee.org
