HCP Newsletter - Summer 2007
Summer Greetings and Happy 4th of July.
We have some great updates on our programs and directors.
Dr. Ruit appointed Honorary Officer in the Order of Australia
Co-Director Dr. Sanduk Ruit was recently appointed an Honorary Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) - the highest honor that the Australian Government awards to foreign nationals. He was appointed for service to humanity by establishing eye care services in Nepal and surrounding countries, and for his work in teaching and training surgeons, and technical innovation. "It is a fitting tribute to the pioneering work that Dr. Ruit has undertaken in enhancing the surgical techniques he learnt in Australia under the tutelage of late Professor Fred Hollows and saving tens of thousands of people in Nepal and other countries in the region from cataract blindness," said Australian Ambassador to Nepal, Graeme Lade in a press statement.
HCP & Earth Institute – Eye Care in Africa
This past winter, the HCP accepted an offer from Columbia University's Earth Institute's Millennium Villages Project and Millennium Promise (www.millenniumpromise.org) to conduct a pilot study on eye care services in the 12 Millennium Villages spread throughout the continent of Africa. The Millennium Villages Project was established in part to prove that successful implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals are possible in the poorest, most underserved areas of the developing world, and can be achieved within in a five year period. Eye care, in particular cataract surgery, is one of the lowest cost public health investments. As a non-communicable disease, it was not chosen as an initial priority of the MVP in its first year of operation. However, understanding that over 51 million people in our world suffer needless darkness - leading to one of the greatest public health challenges for the 21st Century - MVP Directors Jeffrey and Sonia Sachs requested the assistance of HCP to help prove that comprehensive eye care in each of the Villages would be affordable, that is, fit within the complex U.N. Health Budget for the Millennium Villages Project.
This month, the HCP is conducting the inaugural eye care intervention in Bonsaaso, Ghana, one of the 12 Millennium Villages. Dr. Tabin will lead a team in conjunction with local ophthalmologists from Kumasi, Ghana where we have been working over the past two years with the University of Utah’s John Moran Eye Center. Eye care screening will be provided to every single resident of the village (pop. 6,000), every cataract will be treated at a regional clinic, transformed for the high-volume skills transfer surgical clinic, and complicated cases (e.g. cornea transplants) will be referred back to the hospital in Kumasi for subspecialty treatment.
Event in New York – Thursday, July 12
Finally, The North Face (outdoor apparel company) is hosting a speaker series across the country this summer showcasing their premiere athletes and the organizations that they support. Pete Athans has summited Mount Everest seven times and has long championed the Himalayan Cataract Project. In 2005, The North Face sponsored two remote eye camps as part of an expedition to raise awareness for curable blindness in mountainous Asia. Pete led the expedition and will talking about the trip and his involvement with the Himalayan Cataract Project. If you are in New York, please join us, Thursday, July 12th at 7pm at The Directors Guild of America (110 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019). Purchase tickets online at www.northface.com.
Happy 4th of July and enjoy a great summer.
Sincerely,
Job Heintz, Emily Newick and Geoff Tabin
The Himalayan Cataract Project Team
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