Eye Care Foundation helps to prevent and cure avoidable blindness and visual impairment in developing countries.
To succeed our mission we train ophthalmologist, place the right equipment for ophthalmic research and treatment at disposal, and let Dutch ophthalmologists operate people who need direct help.
What we do
Education and training
Organizing eye camps
(Co)building eye hospitals
Supporting Vision 2020
Cataract operations in the Nepalese mountains
Last weekend of March, a mobile eye care clinic for the poor was being held for the 25th time in the remote district of Jumla in Nepal. Eye care in remote and poorly accessible locations is expensive and time consuming. There is insufficient support from the Nepalese government to improve the situation.
As with the first mobile eye clinic in Jumla in 1985, organised by Eye Care Foundation, the Dutch eye doctor Gerald Smith was also participating.
Setting up an eye care clinic takes months of preparation and locals walk for days to reach the camp.
During the clinic, approximately 200 people are examined and about 30 to 40 patients are operated on by Nepalese doctors, trained by Eye Care Foundation. For the poor, these operations that cost a mere €35, are free of charge.
Eye care services in the remote regions are mostly dependent on NGO’s. Many of the eye care clinics are located in the economically more affluent region ( the lowlands of Terai). It is difficult to attract well-trained staff to the rural areas and local eye care staff work mostly in the cities.
