Lions Eye Care Centre (LECC) is a non-government organisation run by the Lions Club of Kathmandu. LECC have been providing eye care services to the people of Nepal since 1984.

Background

LECC base hospital is situated in Kathmandu and operates a daily out-patient service providing eye tests and treatment of minor eye conditions. The clinic also runs weekly eye operations for people with sight-blinding conditions such as cataract and glaucoma. LECC also have three smaller satellite clinics in the eastern hill region of Nepal, and one near Pokhara. Each year rural screening and surgical eye camps are organised in different remote areas of Nepal, thus providing an eye care service that would otherwise be unavailable. These camps are sometimes run in conjunction with a general medical clinic.

The Project

The following projects with verification from the Lions Club in Kathmandu were identified:

• Repair and renovation of the base hospital in Kathmandu.
• Grading of lenses. LECC have thousands of donated spectacles stored in Kathmandu, not utilised because the lenses are ungraded. The Himalayan Hands volunteers will grade (neutralise) the lenses enabling the complete spectacles to be distributed to patients in Kathmandu and at rural eye camps.
• Cataracts are prolific in Nepal especially in the hill areas and an important contributor to this condition is Ultra Violet (UV) radiation from the sun. Himalayan Hands treated the donated spectacles with a chemical that provided protection from harmful UV light (a UK sponsor for the UV protective coating was identified).
• Helping at rural eye camps: advertising the camp in the surrounding area as part of a trek; setting up and co-ordinating the clinic; distributing the graded spectacles; and post-operative care.
• A small scale construction project at the rural camp for example, building a chautara (a traditional Nepali meeting area comprising of a seating area around a central tree).