Project: Project AASHA (meaning is Hope in English)
Project Start & End Date: 25th Dec – 31st Dec 2016
Cost of the project: 5000 USD. Rotarians of Rotary Club of Singapore raised the funds through contributions.
Project location: Nepal
Objective
Facilitate the organization of cataract surgery camps for residents of rural areas of Nepal (Gorkha)
Facilitate retina screening, diagnosis and training of doctors and paramedical personnel in retina screening to be sustainable
Form working relationships between Singaporean and Nepalese ophthalmologists
Benefits:
Around 2000 patients benefited from this program
This project will be conducted annually and will work on areas of retina care and pediatric eye care screening.
Online consultation platform will be setup for Himalaya Eye hospital in Gorkha to connect local doctors to experts.
Main benefit: this will significantly reduce the cases of blindness in the society.
Resources
Dr Rupesh Agrawal spearheaded this project with the support of the students from the LKC School of Medicine, Singapore, who executed this project under the leadership of Dr. Rupesh and Dr. Kumaran, Orthopaedician from TTSH Hospital, Singapore.
Dr. Indraman and his team from Himalayan Eye Hospital, Pokhra contributed to execute this project on ground.
Lions club of Gorkha provided the logistics support.
Next steps
Currently in discussion with Nepal Netrajyoti Sangha to implement the project of online consultation in the entire Nepal
Applied for XOVA (XOVA is an award program sponsored by Novartis Pharma AG. XOVA is intended for medical specialists who have devised initiatives that are expected to have significant impact on unmet needs in the fields of ophthalmology and optometry) funding for the teleopthalmology project as a part of this Project Aasha.
