Help us to raise £5,000 for vital eye testing equipment.
We are delighted to launch our first ever Christmas Appeal to fund the equipment for a much needed Eye Treatment Centre, to be based at our Eco Community Centre, in Kaza, the main town in the Spiti Valley. We are grateful to have already sourced the capital for the fixtures and fittings for the clinic and we are now excited to be moving on to the next phase of our project.
The nature of the environment means that eye problems and diseases are common from the elderly to the very young in this Western Himalayan Region because of the level of light and the dust that comes from the mountains. Currently, people have to travel over 300K, out of the valley to the nearest Eye Hospital, which is both expensive and time consuming.
As the majority of the valley are subsistence farmers, surviving by tending a small plot of land and keeping animals, taking time away from their homesteads can be virtually impossible. Sadly, it is not uncommon to see people living with distressing eye conditions that could so easily be treated. The Eye Treatment Centre will solve this issue for the 50,000 people of Spiti and the surrounding valleys and we are excited and proud to be working on this project.
Working closely with the International Eye Foundation (IEF), we want to provide the necessary equipment for basic eye tests to be undertaken, as well as more complex procedures to treat serious eye conditions. Alongside this, we will also fund a training place at the much acclaimed L V Prased Eye Institute for a local Spiti person to become a Vision Technician and the IEF will visit two or three times a year with a team of doctors to carry out surgical work and refraction eye testing.
£5,000 will buy a number of crucial items for the Eye Treatment Centre as follows:
- ic100 Tonometer – £2,500. This state of the art piece of equipment is portable and will allow us to provide eye tests for up to 30 people per day.
Plus…
- Lensometer – £750
- Streak and Ophthalmoscope – £500
- LED Vision Chart – £440
- 78D Lens – £150
- SS Container – x6 £125
- SS Tray with cover – x6 £125
- Trial Set with Frame – £65
- Torch – x2 £40
- Near Vision Chart – £20
- Colour Vision Book – £20
£245 will be held in reserve to allow for any increase in the above costs.
Any amount you can give will make an enormous difference and we are grateful for your support.
To make your donation please donate via PayPal or JustGiving using the links below.