The gift of sight in Hetauda

The grey mist hangs heavy in the early morning, wrapping the trees, silencing the birds and reducing the sun to an orange disk. We all shiver in the damp air, but none more so than the rows of patients sitting on blue plastic chairs after a long overnight stay in the community hospital, wrapped in shawls and blankets following eye surgeries the day before. 

Mostly old and patently poor, each has one eye neatly taped with gauze, except for one old man in a blue fleece cap and blank expression, who has both eyes covered. 

This morning the bandages are due to come off. All tremble in anticipation of the revelation of restored sight as much as the chill of the Tarai winter. 

Read also: Nepal's far-sighted eye care, Sonia Awale 

The Gift of Sight annual eye camp is one of Rotary Club of Kathmandu Mid-Town’s oldest projects. The need for care of avoidable blindness continues to be severe in Nepal’s rural areas, the most prevalent problem being milky cataracts obscuring sight mainly in older people. 

Every year since the first camp in a school in Chitwan in 1997, the number of patients has been growing because of a publicity program that includes posters, leaflets, miking and local FM radio in Chitwan’s villages, and from as far afield as Phaparbesi, Chitlang, Tistung, Palung, Chisapani and Birganj.

In two days, 124 cataracts have been removed and intraocular lens implanted by skilled eye surgeons. This was an initiative originally inspired by Sanduk Ruit of Tilganga, who had identified Makwanpur as being particularly susceptible to eye disease due to mineral deficiencies, waterborne infections, smoke induced by wood fires and genetic defects. 

Many patients who had one eye done last year are here for their second cataract removal and intraocular lens surgery. Although still called an eye camp, the operations are done in the state-of-the-art Hetauda Community Eye Hospital opened in 2008. 

The camp in January had ophthalmologist Sunil Thakali in charge. Free accommodation and meals were provided to patients, their relatives and attendants during the pre- and post-operative period. Each was given counselling, dark glasses and medication before discharge and sent home by bus to their villages. 

Under bright lights Thakali operates, peering through a microscope, the eye of the otherwise swathed patient propped open with a metal frame whilst he coaxes out the hard cloudy film that has shrouded their sight. 

The nurse at his side confidently and calmly anticipates the surgeon’s needs, handing him sharp instruments and syringes in a well-rehearsed ballet. 

The extracted small dark disk is displayed to us on a green cloth whilst the new lens, calibrated for each individual, is inserted with precision tweezers into the eye.

The invaluable gift of sight is bestowed on another Nepali who could otherwise never afford it. Over the years the real groundwork and annual organisation has been undertaken by Rotary Club Hetauda, led by Siddhi Lal Shrestha. His special skill is motivating local governments, religious organisations, scouts and volunteers for the smooth running of the eye camp.  

This year the preliminary screening was undertaken with 1,065 people identified as needing surgery who were brought to the Hetauda Community Eye Hospital, with free transportation, accommodation and food. 

Continuity to the Gift of Sight project has been possible with decades of financial support from Rotary Clubs of Garden City Singapore, Yuanshan Taiwan, Tainan East Taiwan, Jingfu Taiwan, Science Park Taiwan and personally from CC Chong from RC Garden City Singapore. 

As the sun struggles through the fog, we are invited to peel off the bandages from the wrinkled upturned faces, helped by Rotary colleagues and guided by hospital staff. It is impossible not to be deeply moved by the emotion of the moment.

Thakali moves along the rows with his team, checking and reassuring whilst humbly acknowledging the out-stretched hands thanking and appreciating him. Already the new day’s patients are queueing in the arrival area, awaiting the doctor’s return to office for another full day of work.  

A man in a blue fleece hat looks out at his newly revealed world with an expression hard to describe.

Read also: Nepali surgeon with a vision for the world, Kunda Dixit