A special report for Rayner Intraocular Lenses Ltd: April 2020 We are so grateful for your enduring support and it is a pleasure to send you this special report from our local partners in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. IMPACT projects are designed to take healthcare and surgery to the poorest people, who have no place to turn in the event of ill-health. Thanks to your generous donations of intraocular lenses, recent IMPACT projects in Sri Lanka and Cambodia have enabled people living with needless sight loss to see clearly once again – restoring not only their health but their dignity and future prospects. Sri Lanka - report by IMPACT UK trustee, Mr Sal Rassam (Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon) We have all been in a situation where everything around you is falling apart. Your life is disseminating and you are helpless to do anything about it; being vulnerable and scared… certainly that is the situation when you have lost vision in both eyes and the world around you is invisible. You rely on your other senses which may well be in similar dire states and if you are lucky enough to have loved ones how much of their time can they commit looking after you…. That is the feeling of millions of people in underprivileged countries, living not only in a world of poverty and helplessness but the world around them is vague and obscure. We all have a duty to help others and I have been setting up eye camps in such countries since 1998 and my recent trip has been to the Samanala Valley Clinic in Sri Lanka. The clinic is in the middle of the tea plantations at the heart of beautiful Sri Lanka on top of the mountains; an area of magnificent beauty but fairly isolated with poor transport and limited medical care. One of the reasons that rates of blindness from treatable eye conditions is high is because of exposure to strong sunlight at high altitudes. Many people live in small huts with extended families and very little revenue - barely enough to maintain everyday living, never mind about healthcare provisions. When it comes to healthcare, young people take precedence due to their potential to earn money and so the elderly are treated with least priority. Some of the elderly people live alone as the younger members leave the villages to work in the cities, where there is better income and higher living standards. The Samanala Valley clinic is run by a group of British and European expats and local volunteers. In collaboration with them, I helped to set up a fully-fledged eye clinic with outpatient facilities, operating theatres and sterilisation units in 2009. We carry out screening clinics, glasses prescribing, anterior segment surgery and laser treatments. IMPACT Foundation 151 Western Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3LH Tel: 01444 457080 www.impact.org.uk UK registered Charity No. 290992
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A special report for Rayner Intraocular Lenses Ltd: April 2020
We are so grateful for your enduring support and it is a pleasure to send you this special report from our local partners
in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. IMPACT projects are designed to take healthcare and surgery to the poorest people, who
have no place to turn in the event of ill-health. Thanks to your generous donations of intraocular lenses, recent
IMPACT projects in Sri Lanka and Cambodia have enabled people living with needless sight loss to see clearly once
again – restoring not only their health but their dignity and future prospects.
Sri Lanka - report by IMPACT UK trustee, Mr Sal Rassam (Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon)
We have all been in a situation where everything around you is
falling apart. Your life is disseminating and you are helpless to
do anything about it; being vulnerable and scared… certainly
that is the situation when you have lost vision in both eyes and
the world around you is invisible. You rely on your other senses
which may well be in similar dire states and if you are lucky
enough to have loved ones how much of their time can they
commit looking after you…. That is the feeling of millions of
people in underprivileged countries, living not only in a world of
poverty and helplessness but the world around them is vague
and obscure. We all have a duty to help others and I have been
setting up eye camps in such countries since 1998 and my
recent trip has been to the Samanala Valley Clinic in Sri Lanka.
The clinic is in the middle of the tea plantations at the heart of
beautiful Sri Lanka on top of the mountains; an area of
magnificent beauty but fairly isolated with poor transport and
limited medical care. One of the reasons that rates of blindness
from treatable eye conditions is high is because of exposure to
strong sunlight at high altitudes. Many people live in small huts
with extended families and very little revenue - barely enough to
maintain everyday living, never mind about healthcare
provisions. When it comes to healthcare, young people take
precedence due to their potential to earn money and so the
elderly are treated with least priority. Some of the elderly
people live alone as the younger members leave the villages to
work in the cities, where there is better income and higher living
standards.
The Samanala Valley clinic is run by a group of British and
European expats and local volunteers. In collaboration with
them, I helped to set up a fully-fledged eye clinic with outpatient
facilities, operating theatres and sterilisation units in 2009. We
carry out screening clinics, glasses prescribing, anterior segment