Seva Canada: A Solution in Sight

This morning we received the following email from Kunga Tashi, Program Director of Seva Tibet in Lhasa:

Dear all,

I am back home safely. We have distributed seventy tons of food, water, clothing and tents for those severely affected and others who’re forgotten. Thank you so much for raising funds for Yushu earthquake. We have used part of Seva’s donation to buy medicines and tsampa (our staple food). All the medicines including eye drops have been donated to Yushu Hospital. Sonam can send you the list later.

We were the first relief convoy to arrive in Yushu with the tsampa, butter and tea and people really enjoyed having their traditional food in their plate again. Seva’s partners and friends in Yushu are extremely grateful for our quick action and thoughtful gift.

Tons of pre-packed food is now flooding into Yushu. More locally driven relief convoys are on the way to bring tsampa , butter, meat etc. So we’ll make a period for our relief operation for now as we are tied up with our eye care work.

The majority in Yushu is suffering from loss of the dear ones and their homestead. It will take time to recover from this nightmare. We will continue to pay our attention for people in Yushu until they’re fully recovered from this catastrophe. We are anticipating that there will be shortage of food and warm clothing in the coming winter.We’re tentatively planning to organize another relief convoy around October.

The microscope we have donated to Yushu Hospital has fallen down on the floor. Carl Zeiss Shanghai Office will check if they can repair it. All the buildings standing in Yushu are in a state of disrepair. I think the government will rebuild them.

As you may have read in the news, the Chinese government is doing a great job to help the victims in Yushu.

The princess Rinzin Wangmu [Panchen Lama's daughter] has led a relief convoy of nine trucks and I have participated in the distribution of the relief items on the ground. The princess has summoned around three hundred monks at the funeral to pray for those who lost thier lives during the earthquake. It’s very comforting for those who survived.

More soon

Kunga

Today’s Globe and Mail newspaper featured a front page story by Geoffrey York about Peter Ash and the work he is doing to raise awareness of the slaughter of people with albinism in Tanzania.

Peter, a BC businessman who has albinism, founded a charity called Under the Same Sun. He has worked tirelessly to get this grim story in the news and to press the Tanzanian authorities to do something about these horrific crimes. I remember him telling me that when he went to Tanzania to visit victims and meet politicians, people would call out to him the dreaded words “Dili dili” — a direct threat that he  might be killed for his body parts to make witchcraft “get rich” potions. He and his brother must travel with bodyguards when they go to Tanzania.

Peter Ash and Under the Same Sun have supported Seva Canada’s work with children in Tanzania by funding three  shipments of children’s eyeglass frames to Moshi. In fact, the next shipment is due to be sent by KLM Cargo and Worldwide Animal Travel this Thursday.

As the Globe article stated, people with albinism usually have poor vision. Where Seva works in eastern Africa, there are many children with albinism in the blind schools as well as adult patients with albinism who come to the eye clinics. Recently, Dutch photographer David de Wit took these images of children with albinism at the the blind schools.

It’s time to write some happy news after all the recent Seva blogs about the earthquake in Yushu.

The good news is that we have just learned that Cathay Pacific has kindly offered to waive the extra baggage costs for sending 4 large boxes of essential eye care equipment for Seva Canada’s sight restoration and blindness prevention programs in Nepal. Dr. Ken Bassett, Seva’s program director, will be taking the equipment to Kathmandu in May.

The instruments were donated to Seva Canada, a registered Canadian charity, by Vancouver ophthalmologist, Dr. Jesse Chew.

Dr. Chew donated three lensometers and one keratometer and Seva is extremely grateful for his very kind and generous gift. Lensometers are some of the most used optical instruments in ophthalmology and are used for checking eyeglass lenses to make sure they are the right prescription. The keratometer is a device used to measure the curvature of the eye and to assist eye surgeons in certain surgical procedures such as cataract surgery.

This is the second time in the last few years that Cathay Pacific has helped Seva send equipment overseas. About 4 years ago, Cathay Pacific helped Seva send a visual field analyzer to Lhasa, Tibet.

Cathay Pacific’s slogan is “Great service. Great people. Great fares.” Based on our experience dealing with Sarra Gau of Cathay Pacific in Vancouver, that tag line sure fits.

Helping Seva get our four boxes of eye equipment to Nepal may be a small gift from Cathay, but it is very big gift from our point of view. All we can say is a very big thank you on behalf of everyone at Seva Canada, Seva Nepal and on behalf of all those patients in Nepal who will have their eyesight improved or restored.

We’ve just received one bit of very good news from the earthquake zone. Contrary to earlier reports, the hospital in Yushu where Seva works was not destroyed, though the building was damaged in the quake and has cracks. The latest reports via Dolma at the Seva Tibet office in Lhasa are that one hospital staff member died in the earthquake.

The Seva Tibet staff have been extremely active in responding to the quake. As far as we know, Dr. Dorjee of the Kham Eye Centre and his eye care team is still in the disaster zone providing emergency medical care. Seva Tibet’s program director is Kunga Tashi. Before joining Seva, Kunga was the head of the Swiss Red Cross in Tibet, so he is very experienced in relief efforts and he was also involved in the earthquake relief after the 2008 Kham (Sichuan) earthquake. Because Seva has worked in the Yushu region for so long, he has many contacts on the ground.

This morning (April 20th) we at Seva Canada got this update from Dolma in the Seva Tibet office:

A Tibetan woman collects her belongings in A woman collects her belongs in Gyegu Town, near the earthquake-hit Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu,

Hi all,

Kunga la arrived on 17th around 7:00 pm in Yushu with 3 trucks of goods. On that night and the next day, he couldn’t distribute the food because there were many people (not necessary poor people or earthquake victims) trying to rob all the supplies of the three trucks. Those people tend to rob food and medical supplies and then sell them in the Yushu town.

In order to assure that the most needy people receive the food, clothes and medical supplies, Kunga la and the disabled person’s federation (our program partner) worked together and  distributed 35.5 tons of goods with 3 trucks to poor people on 19th. The goods distributed are $ 17,043 of tsampa (Tibetan barley), $23,023 of warm clothes and shoes, $10,800 of medicines and eye drops and $ 6265 of tents.

On Saturday evening (17th,) the second batch of goods with 4 trucks (46.5 tons) left for Yushu.  In those trucks, there are $26,063 of tsampa, $3055 of butter, $2135 of canned meat, $4453 of mineral water, $860 of dry black tea, $6059 of clothes, $1471 of salt, $220 of match and candles and $191 of instant noodles. All 4 trucks arrived in Yushu safely by 20th morning. Kunga la is trying to distribute some of the goods through monasteries, which have more access to poor earthquake victims. He is also linked up with a local association in which the director of the association is the Princess [the Panchen Lama's daughter) who Kunga knows well],  to locate more victims and to identify other needs. The Princess is traveling to Yushu on 22nd.

Kunga la is saying that 100% of Tibetan houses are collapsed and 80% of concrete-built houses are cracked. Medical needs are pretty well fulfilled by different groups of medical teams sent by the government. The urgent need so far seems to be tents, tsampa and butter. The food flooding to Yushu from mainland is instant noodles but many nomads have stomach ache of eating them everyday and have more desire to eat tsampa.

Best, Dolma

The board and staff of Seva Canada and our sister organization, Seva Foundation in Berkeley, have raised money internally and are wiring money to Tibet to help with Kunga’s efforts. We have appealed to our donors to help in the long-term rebuilding of the eye care programs in this region which has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world. http://www.seva.ca/sevaintibet.htm

According to reports on the ground, the death toll from the earthquake is much higher than the official estimates and the numbers of dead reported in the media. The media today, April 20th, were reporting that the number of dead has reached over 2,000 and that the earthquake also injured 12,135 people and left several thousand people homeless in the remote, largely Tibetan area. People providing on-the-ground relief estimate the death toll is many times higher.

Of the injured, more than 1,400 were said to be in serious condition.

We are extremely grateful to our wonderful supporters for the generosity in helping Seva provide both relief and long-term eye care for the earthquake area. The following is a poem of thanks from Dr. Chundak Tenzing, Tibetan ophthalmologist and Program Director at Seva Foundation, our sister organization in Berkeley — as well as being Seva’s poet laureate:

Unimaginable
How in minutes
Life is buried
Under dust

And the eyes
shed tears
forever

Remarkable
How instantly
Kind souls
Reach out

To rebuild
The confidence
In life again.

For more information about the earthquake in Yushu please see Seva’s other blog posts:
Before and after photographs of the earthquake in Kham/Qinghai

Earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai: Aid and Seva’s response

Earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai: Report from Seva Tibet

Two years ago, Seva Canada board member, Susan Erdmann, spent three months in Yushu at her own expense, working as a volunteer in the hospital and photographing the Seva eye camps that were being held in the region.

In this blog, Susan reflects on what she has seen, then and now and shares her photographs of happier days in Yushu.

Photograph of Yushu after the earthquake. From Rokpa www.rokpa.ca

Susan writes:

The pictures and further news from Yushu are terrifying.

I look at the pictures of Yushu today and I can’t imagine how anyone survived. The pictures I took and the memories of this busy little town with its flow of herders and nomads, the small shop keepers and vendors, students and beggars and monks and nuns. Where are they all now?  Are they under the rubble? Did they hopefully survive? Will I ever know? It is so sad.

Hospital in Yushu where the eye camp was held This is the photo of the hospital in Yushu where Seva works and where the eye camps I witnessed were held. NOTE: We had first heard that it was completely destroyed, but Kunga, director of Seva Tibet, has told us on April 19th that it is damaged and cracked, not destroyed as we had been told. Photo by Susan Erdmann, Seva Canada

The hospital, now collapsed, was an easy target for a quake and was pretty minimal in all that it could offer, but it was the only hospital and most of the staff are now gone.

This area, so challenged with life generally, has now nothing to fall back on save what is brought to them from the outside. Will the outside continue to remember their needs? Will they get the help they need even more? What can be salvaged here? I know it will happen… somehow it will come together. The Tibetans are tough, resilient and accepting. I am glad Seva will be involved in their recovery. They will have to see with even clearer vision for the future.

Here are more photos of Yushu that Susan took before the earthquake, in contrast with the devastation now.

A collapsed building in Yushu after the earthquake

Before the earthquake in Qinghai: main temple of the monastery south of Yushu. It is reported that at least 40 monks died in the earthquake. Photo by Susan Erdmann, Seva Canada

Before the quake: This is the interior courtyard of Rokpa's orphanage and School for Tibetan Medicine in Yushu, Qinghai. Photo by Susan Erdmann

Before the earthquake, a street scene in the centre of Yushu. Photo by Susan Erdmann, Seva Canada

Kunga Tashi (left), Program Director of Seva Tibet, is rushing to Yushu with aid for the earthquake victims. Here he is, in happier days, being thanked by Tibetans at a Seva eye camp in the area

We learned late yesterday that Kunga Tashi, Program Director of Seva Tibet, was leaving Lhasa to make the long and difficult journey to Yushu.

It will take him 30 hours to reach Yushu. He has a half a truckload of donations from the Tibet Red Cross and other Tibetans to provide food and blankets to the earthquake victims. Kunga has not been able to contact Dr. Sona Yangzom and nurse Dolma, both of  whom were trained by Seva at our partner hospital in Nepal, the Lumbini Eye Institute. Kunga will keep the Seva family updated about their conditions when he reaches Yushu.

When the earthquake happened, a team of Seva-sponsored ophthalmologists and field staff had just completed a nearby eye camp and they are already on their way to the devastated region to help in rescue efforts.

Reports are that hospitals and several schools collapsed, the old section of Yashu in the Quinghai province has been completely flattened and hundreds are buried beneath the rubble of homes and buildings.  Many medical staff were lost in the collapse of a hospital.

At Seva we are following the situation closely and applaud emergency relief organizations that are already on their way to help with the immense challenges to provide health care, food, water, blankets, clothes and other urgent life saving measures for a traumatized region.

With three decades of on-the-ground experience in Tibet, we know how to get help to those who need it.

Dr. Dorjee, far left, is an ophthalmologist. He and his Seva-supported team were in the earthquake region conducting eye camps when the earthquakes near Yushu struck. He and his teams have rushed to the disaster zone to offer medical assistance. Here he is in better days with hundreds of eye patients after a cataract surgical camp.

Seva is committed to helping by doing what we do best.

We will focus our efforts to assist those who have sustained eye injuries, help rebuild eye care services and replace lost equipment destroyed in the quake.

You can donate to Seva Canada to help rebuild the eye care programs in the earthquake area where we have worked since 1995 and which has one of the world’s highest rates of blindness.

Your donation today will go toward rebuilding eye care services in Tibet.



This morning we received this email from Kunga Tashi, Seva’s Program Director in Lhasa, Tibet with reports of the situation in Yushu:

Re: Devastating earthquake in Yushu

Dear all,

Several strong earthquakes struck Yushu early this morning. The epicenter is 20 miles from town of Yushu. Hundreds of people lost their lives, thousands buried.

Dr Dorjee, an ophthalmologist from the Kham Eye Center, was conducting eye camps in the Yushu area when the earthquake struck and he and his medical team have rushed to the disaster area to provide medical relief. Photo: Seva Tibet

A Kham Eye Center team led by Dr. Dorjee had just completed a screening camp yesterday in Sershul, 90km east of Yushu and was about to leave for Dege for the next camp. After hearing the big damage in Yushu this morning, his team left for the disaster area and is now rescuing the injured.

I managed to talk to Nima (assistant director of the Kham Eye Centre) over phone around 7pm. She said the entire infrastructure is damaged. She can only receive incoming calls from time to time. According to Nima, Yushu Hospital has collapsed. Around 70% of the hospital staff are either dead in the hospital or in their houses. The Kham Eye Center team is rescuing people in a school. The old part of the town is completely flat as she stated. (UPDATE TO THIS BLOG: On April 19th we learned that the hospital in Yushu did not collapse but was damaged and cracked. One staff member died.)

I spoke to Dr. Norbu Tsering early this morning and he was hurrying to the hospital. Norbu’s line was permanently off since then. Then I spoke with Dondup Tsering, former director of the Disabled Person’s Federation now serving as head of Yushu TV, and he told me that almost all the houses are collapsed and he was with a rescue team and would talk with me later.

Things are much worse than what has reported in the media. A medical team of 15 people from Dartsedo is on the way to Yushu. I have no clue what we can do at this stage but I asked the folks in Yushu to let us know if we can be of any help for the victims in Yushu.

Kunga

According to the media reports on the morning of April 14th, at least 400 people have been killed and more have been injured or trapped in rubble after a series of six earthquakes hit Yushu County in Qinghai Province. Officials said more than 10,000 people were injured.

The China Earthquake Networks Centre put the biggest shock at magnitude 7.1, although the US Geological Survey put it at 6.9. The Haiti quake which killed more than 200,000 and left 1m homeless in January was magnitude 7. The China Earthquake Administration said phone lines were down, hindering rescue efforts, while workers were racing to release water from a cracked reservoir. The epicentre of the first quake was located 235 miles south-south-east of Golmud, a large city in Qinghai, at a depth of six miles, the US Geological Survey said.

Yushu county is a largely Tibetan area. Seva has been been working in the Yushu area since 1995 and is the main eye care provider in the region which has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world. Our colleagues in the Kham Eye Center in Dartsedo to the south, faced a similar nightmare during the Sichuan earthquake which struck on May 12, 2008 and which measured 7.9 or 8.0 on the Richter scale.

Everyone at Seva is deeply saddened by this latest tragedy to hit an area that has already suffered so much. With such destruction to the hospital and health care system, there will certainly be much for Seva to do. The people in Yushu will need our help to rebuild the eye care services at the hospital, possibly replace equipment and perhaps help fund the repair of the hospital.

Seva supporter, Michael Buckley was in Cambodia recently and kindly offered to journey to Battambang, in the far west of the country, to see and photograph Seva’s eye care programs there.

During the genocide, Cambodia’s health care system was devastated and the country was left with just one ophthalmologist. Now Cambodia has 9 ophthalmologists serving a population of 14 million and Seva has helped train over half of them.

There are about 168,000 Cambodians who are blind — and, as is true in nearly all poor, developing countries, 80% of this blindness is due to preventable or treatable conditions such as cataract. The backlog of cataract blind is estimated to be 90,000 people and there are a further 20,000 who go blind from cataract each and every year.

View Michael’s Flickr slideshow which gives a glimpse of the incredible work being done by the team in Cambodia.

Cataract, the clouding of the lens of the eye, occurs with age. Blindness due to cataract occurs with poverty.

In Canada, almost no one becomes blind from cataract. Cataract is diagnosed early when impairment is minimal, and treated surgically, almost always restoring near-normal sight.

In low-income countries, almost everyone with cataract becomes blind. Cataract is diagnosed late when impairment is severe. When possible, cataract surgery occurs, almost always restoring near normal vision.

This teenage girl from Nepal is blind from mature bilateral cataracts. Photo from Seva Canada.

The difference between cataract in high and low income countries is not the condition or its treatment. All populations develop cataract with age. All countries offer similar high quality cataract surgery. Therefore, the difference is timing.

In Canada, cataract surgical services catch people up-stream as they age, before they become blind. In low-income countries, cataract surgical services work down-stream in the deep accumulated pool of older cataract blind.

The problem in most low-income countries is that they developed their cataract surgical service after their population aged beyond 50 years, and 5-10% of them became blind. Their cataract surgical services face this accumulated mass of cases. Meanwhile, the population ages and more and more cases pour in.

In most low income countries, there are five times as many in the pool of blind people needing surgery as the number of people who become blind every year. Even with a large investment in cataract surgical services it takes a decade or more to deal with the backlog, while meeting annual incoming needs.

Seva programs are situated where the backlog is greatest and services are least. As a result, their cataract surgical services require substantial expansion, far beyond those expected by people living in a high income country such as Canada, where cataract blindness is seldom, if ever, found.

Ken Bassett MD PhD is the Program Director for Seva Canada and Director of the BC Centre for Epidemiologic and International Ophthalmology.

This young Indian woman is blind from cataracts. Photo by Dr. Martin Spencer for Seva Canada

Here is the same Indian woman after having her sight restored in one eye through cataract surgery. Photo by Dr. Martin Spencer for Seva Canada