HENDERSONVILLE, N.C.  — Nearly 30 years ago, Rakesh Agarwal arrived in America with $20 in his pocket. Now a Hendersonville resident and the owner and CEO of Rug and Home, Agarwal has created a nonprofit to help the poorest of the poor in his native India.

When Agarwal flew into the country all those years ago, he had no clue where he was going. He couldn’t find a map in the New Delhi area that had Hendersonville on it.

Once in the States, he scraped and scratched for more than two decades before fulfilling the “American Dream.”

The nonprofit grew out of Agarwal’s desire to help the people in remote parts of his home country.

Agarwal financed a trip to India last year for eight people from Hendersonville and Asheville.

“I come from an area where 50 to 60 percent of the people don’t have running water or electricity,” he said. “I wanted to go back and do something for that area.”

The team traveled to Bahuti in December of 2011 on a medical excursion. They weren’t sure what the pressing needs were, but took antibiotics and other medical supplies to treat a variety of illnesses.

Expecting hundreds, the team was greeted by nearly 4,000 people seeking help. They encountered everything from gastric illnesses to mental illnesses and simple wounds.

The most pressing need, however, was one that surprised the team.

“The longest lines were for eye care,” Agarwal said. “Women outnumbered men 5-to-1 in those lines.”

The biggest issue for women was cataracts, he said.

“I realized women’s healthcare was nonexistent in these parts,” he added. “They are the lost priority when it comes to health care. They are made to understand they have a life of sacrifice. That’s how Vision Express was born.”

After communicating with doctors in India, Agarwal decided that Vision Express will begin to offer cataract surgeries. The procedure, which can cost thousands of dollars in the United States, will cost $25 per eye in India.

One ticket to today’s fundraising benefit will pay for one surgery on one eye.

Correcting the women’s vision will be a major improvement for the region, Vision Express board member Carol Talbot said.

“The impact is great because it lets the woman take her role back again,” she added.

The Vision Express team will return in March with more medical supplies and to begin setting up the surgeries. Every donation to Vision Express will be used solely for the surgeries.

Any other trip expenses by the team will be paid for out of pocket, not from the nonprofit’s funds.

“We’re very adamant about that,” Talbot said.

For Agarwal, the trips have two benefits. People in India need medical attention, but on the flip side,the visits provide cultural awareness.

Agarwal wants those involved to experience the culture he grew up in.

“It’s certainly a health care initiative, but equally as important to me is building bridges,” he said.

Agarwal came to the United States in 1985 as a production manager for Spinning Wheel Rugs on Church Street. His wife, Dolly, and daughter Aanchal made the trip with him. He started out working from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. at Spinning Wheel Rugs and eventually began working at World of Clothing, where he introduced the company’s rug line.

From 1986 until 1995, he worked his shift at Spinning Wheel and then worked from 6 p.m. until midnight at the World of Clothing.

He eventually became the CEO at World of Clothing, before starting Rug and Home in 1995. The store has three locations.

The original store is in Asheville across from Biltmore Square Mall. He also has locations in Kannapolis and Gaffney, S.C.

It wasn’t an easy road to find that success, he said.

“We were close to bankrupt in the first two years,” he said. Long hours and hard work paid off in the end and now Agarwal is able to do things that he’s only dreamed about.

He’s donated $100,000 to Four Seasons Hospice and has been a major contributor to the Flat Rock Playhouse. Multiple times a year, his stores buy bouquets of flowers for nursing homes. Every resident in the nursing homes receive flowers, he said.

“My thing has always been touching people’s lives,” he said. “As many people as I can. We just do it quietly.”

Vision Express, however, takes his giving to another level. Agarwal’s been back to India to visit his family, but now he can help some of the most impoverished people in his native country.

“Doing this was very emotional,” he said. “I never thought I’d be in a position to do it.”

It was that trip to the United States with hardly any money that changed his life.

“This is the only country I could have done what I’ve done,” he said. “People took us in with open arms.”

• Associated Press