Curing Blindness & Restoring Sight – New Eye Hospital Construction

Dooley Intermed is nearing completion of a brand new 3-story Eye Hospital in Nepal near the border of India. Launched in 2018 this construction effort is the most ambitious project in our 60+ year history.

Our URGENT NEED for this new Eye Hospital is funding for furnishings ($8,000 USD) and initial operating expenses during the opening process, scheduled for 2022, including hiring the needed 10-12 staff members, medical supplies and equipment ($25,000 USD).

We estimate the new Eye Hospital will serve more than one hundred thousand patients per year from Nepal and nearby bordering districts of India, regardless of their ability to pay.

Our goal with this new Eye Hospital is to improve the quality of life of people suffering from blindness or visual impairment. By alleviating blindness, we will also reduce poverty in this heavily populated disadvantaged and underdeveloped area.

We are on the “home stretch” with this massive project and will soon provide the “Gift of Sight” for thousands of men, women and children in great need. Can you help us help them?

Background:

The required land was donated by the local municipality and the Nepal Army contributed 30 laborers for six months to assist with site clearing and foundation work. The Nepal government recently contributed needed diagnostic equipment and another charitable organization has offered to cover the cataract surgery costs of the first 500 impoverished patients. Construction commenced in 2018 in cooperation with Reiyukai Eiko Masunaga Eye Hospital based in Nepal. With your support, we will open the facility early in 2022.

The “Florence Nightingales of Nepal”

The female village healthcare workers serving the remote villages of Nepal are extremely motivated and dedicated, but often lack fundamental medical training and basic healthcare equipment. Traveling on foot along trails to outlying communities they serve as the frontline healthcare workers, helping to eradicate diseases like polio and measles, treating childhood illnesses, and providing vital medical aid.

An article in Lancet referred to these remarkable volunteers as “The Florence Nightingales of Nepal.”  Dooley Intermed has initiated a series of training program for these female healthcare workers with the goal of empowering these women with new skills and knowledge to enhance the quality of care rendered to remote villagers. Our programs each train 20 carefully selected students from remote villages who complete a 40-hour intensive training program.  Upon successful graduation, each woman receives a comprehensive medical kit equipped with a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, scale, medical references and basic supplies.  Most importantly, they are now empowered with new knowledge, skills, and the professional contacts for advanced medical advice and referrals.

The need for this type of training is enormous. Based on the success of our Dooley Intermed training programs word has spread and we are now receiving requests from the female volunteer healthcare workers from many other villages seeking similar training.

It costs $5,000 USD to conduct a training class including professional instruction, text books and reference materials, plus a modest stipend to cover the cost of food and transportation to enable the women to attend from very poor villages.

Please consider sponsoring a class to empower these truly remarkable female healthcare workers, the “Florence Nightingales of Nepal” to help bring ongoing medical care to remote villages in one of the world’s most impoverished countries.