Here’s some great news for you from western Nepal.
You may remember that last spring Seva Canada launched a fundraising campaign to buy a new bus for Geta Eye Hospital in the south-west corner of Nepal.
Staff of Geta Eye Hospital register patients for the eye camp. The blue bus, donated by Seva supporters, doubles as an office.
The need was huge. The bus was needed to transport the teams of eye doctors and nurses and their equipment, such as the operating microscope, to remote areas to conduct surgical and screening eye camps and restore sight to thousands of blind and vision-impaired people. “The old bus was really dangerous,” said Susan Erdmann, Seva volunteer and board member who rode the old bus in 2009. “It had worn brakes, worn motor, worn tires. After 10 years on horrible Nepali roads it kept breaking down. Cheap Nepali duct tape only goes so far in holding things together.” Seva Canada supporters came to the rescue and purchased a new 25-passenger Tata bus. Here's a video: This month the bus completed its inaugural trip in three hill districts of western Nepal. For 18 days, from April 27 to May 13, the eye care team including eye surgeon Dr Deepak Khadka travelled to conduct 5 camps in three remote districts. Over 3,600 patients were examined and the team conducted 618 sight-restoring cataract surgeries plus 66 other eye surgeries. Here are the results: Site of eye camp District # of outpatients Cataract surgeries Other eye surgeries TOTAL SURGERIES Dehimandu Baitadi 750 80 8 88 Melauli Baitadi 986 196 13 209 Khalanga Darchula 750 164 11 175 Malikarjun Darchula 450 52 4 56 Khalanga Dadeldhura 804 126 30 156 TOTAL 3 districts 3,697 618 66 684 The bus will set of on its second journey from June 1-11th, when the team from Geta Eye Hospital conduct eye camps in remote Bajhang District. Dr. Pant, the director of Geta Eye Hospital wrote, “We will try hard to write the name of the donors before our 2nd camp with that bus. Once again I would like to express our sincere thanks to you and the donors of the bus for making our camp successful.” Ultimately the bus will be used to conduct 10-12 surgical camps and 20-30 eye screening camps annually. The bus will also be used to transport patients to and from Geta Eye Hospital in Dhangarhi, Nepal. The bus is the lifeline to bring the gift of sight to tens of thousands of people. Our heartfelt thanks to the following donors: Nicholas Spears Jim Peerless Nick Halpin & Valerie Mermet the supporters of the Gabriola Himalayan Festival June 2010 and Nader Atoofi and his colleagues at TELUS. Happy Bus Day! P.S. Please help Seva equip a new Vision Centre in the hills of Gulmi District in Nepal. Donate today at https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/SevaCanada/OnlineDonation.htmlSome of the 618 Nepali patients who received sight-restoring cataract surgery thanks to the help of Seva donors
