Eye camp in Baluwa

Namaste from Baluwa

To warm us up for the wandering eye camp next week we tagged along with our friends from the Banepa eye hospital on a one day eye camp in Baluwa village. This was a good chance to brush up on our skills before heading off for 2 weeks on a big eye camp in the Pokhara area. As we have already covered Baluwa is a poor village around 30 minutes from Banepa and we work on several different projects there.  Many of these projects are made possible due to the specal relationship between Rotary New Zealand and Baluwa village.

I am a giant! Raaaarh!

We tested 175 people throughout the day and identified 21 people in need of cataract surguries. There surguries will be performed at the eye hospital in Banepa. The great news is that 6 of these people have already come for surgery in the few days following the camp. The remainder will come as they can.  Unfortunately some of the very old are alone in the village, many are alone because younger family members are heading off to Kathmandu or overseas for work.  They are unable to come in for surgery on their own - due to their almost complete blindness. We are hoping to organise for a group to travel in together to ensure they can get the surgery they need.

These two photos show how a cataract can affect vision, first 6/6 (normal) vision

Second 6/60 vision, many people we test have even worse vision than 6/60. It is only a $20 operation to turn this picture back into the one above it

Next week we will be heading off to remote villages in the mid western hill regions (think close to Pokhara) for a two week long eye camp. We know that we will be coming across many many people in need of cataract surgery. During last years camp over 200 people were identified and referred for free cataract sugery. They all had 6/60 vision or worse in both eyes. See some photos from this trip on our last blog: http://namaste-nepal2011.blogspot.com/2011/11/western-terai-eye-camp-photos.html.  If you want to help than please get in touch.