During the month of February, Shenpen has concluded 3 major eye camps at Matatirtha Old Age Home, Sikharapur School Pharping and Kakani Scout Premises.

We organized an eye camp at Matatirtha Old Age Home on 12th,February 2016, in coordination with our project partner Nepal Scouts, who brought the medical team from Tilganga Eye Hospital. They checked all the mothers residing at the old age home.

The volunteers as well as doctors from Tilganga Eye Hospital were very empathetic to the mothers while conducting medical checkups. They had to be patient as well as cautious during the check-ups because all the mothers residing at the old age home are above 70 years of age, and a couple of them are deaf as well as mute. Sometimes, it would be really frustrating for the clinicians, but they showed their professionalism and took their time for almost 6 hours to finish checking 21 mothers residing there.

Out of the 21 elderly women, 10 of them have poor eye vision and they need to have cataract surgery. The clinicians provided all the information regarding the surgery to the old age home coordinator Ram, and told him that they need to bring all 10 mothers to the Sitapaila White Monastery for the surgery on 14^th February, 2016 at around 2 pm. Out of 10 surgery, one mother will be taken to the hospital itself for the surgery due to her poor physical condition. The day was very significant for those mothers and it was fruitful.

Eye Camp at Pharping

The first day of the project started with great energy at Pharping, which was the first destination of the eye camp on February 13^th, 2016. People were lined up at the Sikharapura Community School before the camp even started. Our eye camp was scheduled for 9 am until 1 pm, but people kept collecting there for the free eye treatment and we had to extend our time. The response from the community was overwhelming. 

 I spoke with all the respective members of the team, the doctors, volunteers and school authority, to be organized for all the patients that we could expect for the day. After 8 hours of hard work, the team managed to check 752 people and 50 patients were taken for cataract surgery. Local volunteers from the school, Nepal Scouts and the support of the local people made our work easier by helping us to control the big mass of patients. At the end of the Eye Camp locals of Pharping were very much pleased as the huge number of people that were treated with their eye problems in such a short time period.

On the second day, we were very enthusiastic about our success at Pharping and reached Kakani around 9:30 am with the team of Doctors from Tilganga Eye Hospital. Once we were there, like Pharping, patients were lined up for the eye exams. We saw so many girl scouts helping old patients to register their name. We were happy to hear that people were coming to check up their eyes at the camp by walking 4-5 hours and some people came to the camp site as early as 8 am. At Kakani, the camp was at the premises of Nepal Scout Training Center, it was well organized and even personnel from Nepalese Army were there to help our eye camp. I feel privilege to be a part of the team where we conducted almost 350 eye exams.The interesting part was most of the people coming at the camp site were elderly, with the average age of 60.  From that group only 20 people were taken for cataract surgery.

Cost Benefit Analysis of the Camp:

Total Patients served during the weekend: 1102

Patients referred for Cataract Surgery:  70

Total Fund Provided by Shenpen: Rs 60,000

Average Cost per Patients: Approx NRs 55

This was a big achievement in the history of Tilganga eye hospital and it breaks the record for eye camps with 752 people being examined in an eye camp.

Cataract Surgery at White Monastery (Druk Pema Karpo Clinic)

Patients for cataract surgery were selected by the team of doctors from different locations; all the patients were taken to the Druk Pema Karpo Clinic at White Monastery, Sitapaila for cataract surgery a day ahead. Once the patients arrived at Druk Pema Karpo Clicnic, they performed another round of medical checkup whether patient’s condition are suitable for surgery or not. This year around 110 patients has successfully been operated by the Karpo Clinic including, 10 elderly mothers from Mata Tirtha Old Age Home.

                                                            Nun helping with the registration of the patients

   A joyous patient after regaining her vision requested to dance with Nun

    Thank you for bringing light and joy into their eyes!