Priyanka Vishwakarma, 12, of Shubhakalika-7 Mugraha, is happy after regaining the sight in her right eye that she lost 11 years ago. She lost her sight after being hit by a wheat stalk while playing in the yard at the age of one and developed cataracts. She returned from a camp organized in Manma last week.

Priyanka, a class 3 student at the local Badrukh Basic School, had come to the Manma eye treatment camp with her aunt Sarita. Priyanka, who is from a family of 10 including her grandmother, mother, two brothers and five sisters, is in Bangalore, India to take care of her father, Kapure. He left for Bangalore on Chaitra 11.

After the team of pediatric ophthalmologist Dr. Hari Bikram Adhikari, who came to the camp from the Himalayan Eye Hospital, Pokhara, removed her blindfold, Priyanka Jyoti jumped and screamed with joy when she returned.
She had stopped going to school for a few days last year after her friends started belittling her after she lost her vision. She said that after her mother went to school and talked to the friends who were belittling her, she started going to school again.

Khinta Kathayat, 77, of Khardu, Pachaljharana 3, who had lost her sight in both eyes for 5 years, has also regained her sight. Her youngest son, Dal Bahadur, carried her on his back for 5 hours from Khardu village and brought her in a car from Jarrkot. She was happy after receiving light from the camp, saying, ‘I have got a new life. I can see like before.’ Narrating that her mother regained her sight after cataract surgery in both eyes, her son Dal Bahadur said in a local interview, ‘When we brought her from home, we carried her on our backs (on our backs), (we had brought her)’. Now I can walk on a cane.’’

Both his eyes, which were getting blurry 7 years ago, were completely closed 5 years ago. 72-year-old Naine Adhikari of Khadachak-8, Aichena, who regained his sight after undergoing surgery on both eyes, is very happy to be able to see again in the eye that he had lost for a year. ‘Life is like dying in the dark without seeing. After seeing his eyes again, it feels like he has got a new life.’ When he came to the camp, he came on his son’s back. They walked back home.'

In the camp organized in Manma, 173 people who lost their sight due to cataracts and 29 people in the camp in Kumalgaun, Narharinath, were able to regain their sight after free cataract surgery, said Double Adhikari, head of the Eye Treatment Center, Manma.

484 people who came to the camp in Manma and 365 people in Narharinath underwent free eye tests. Khadanand Pandey, president of Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh, Kalikot, said that women benefited the most from the camp. 'Sisters who could not leave their homes received eye tests, free glasses and surgery along with medicines at their own place,' he said.

With the financial support of Eye Care Foundation Netherlands and Ridley Eye Care and the technical support of Himalayan Eye Hospital Pokhara, the local organizer of the free cataract surgery camp was Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh Kalikot. Eye patients from all 9 local levels of the district including Dailekh and Jumla came to the camp.

40 years ago, Dr. Margaret Howe, a Dutch citizen known as the Mother of Karnali, started a free eye camp for the residents of Kalikot, Jumla, Mugu and Humla in remote Karnali, which is still ongoing, said Anil Gorkhali, the country director of Eye Care Foundation Netherlands.

According to him, 80,000 eye patients have been operated on in the past 40 years, including Kalikot, Jumla, Mugu and Humla in 4 districts of Karnali. Despite the lack of roads, Dr. He recalled that Margaret had walked from Surkhet to run eye camps in remote districts of Karnali via Dailekh and Kalikot. This organization has been supporting eye hospitals in Kalikot, Jumla, Mugu and Humla for the past 40 years with buildings, equipment and manpower.