Amdo Eye Hospital

(Qinghai Woeser Cataract Treatment Center)

Watch the inauguration of the Amdo Eye Hospital, July 2010

After more than 6 years FPMT is extremely pleased to announce the opening of the Amdo Eye Hospital, in Xining, the capital of Amdo, Tibet. This hospital is dedicated to providing continuous, sustainable and quality eye care to all and in particular those from underprivileged backgrounds. The hospital will also be offering smaller outreach microsurgery eye clinics in remote areas.

Every five seconds, one person in the world goes blind. 37 million people in the world are blind, yet with access to quality eye care, 80% of the world’s blindness would be totally avoidable.

The province of Amdo (called Qinghai in Chinese) is home to people of both Tibetan and Chinese descent. Many are nomads living far from modern health care facilities, and due to the terrain and scattered population, mobile eye care providers cannot always reach them. As a result, the prevalence of blindness in Amdo is four times higher than the national average for China. The need is urgent for accessible eye care in Amdo. That is why Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche requested Lama Zopa Rinpoche to help with the building of Amdo Eye Hospital.

Modeled on the already successful Lhasa Eye Clinic, the Amdo Eye Hospital will be specifically providing high quality cataract surgery. Dr. Sanduk Ruit – who founded the highly successful Tilganga Eye Center in Kathmandu, the Lhasa Eye Clinic and the Nepal Eye Program – will be training the Amdo Eye Hospital staff and is committed to oversee operations for the next two years, ensuring the highest standards (letter of support from Dr. Sanduk Ruit).

The Simplest Miracle

Intraocular surgery can be performed in minutes. First the eye is washed to reduce the risk of infection. A local anesthetic is injected below the lower eyelid, blocking sensation in the eyeball. After the clouded interior of the lens is removed through a tiny incision on the side of the eyeball, the intraocular lens is inserted into the empty lens capsule. Dr. Ruit has said: "It is the best thing a human can do in five minutes."

For the past 6 years FPMT has been committed to raising the funds to build the Amdo Eye Hospital and due to the kindness of many benefactors in particular The Tanoto Founda­tion and Compassion Paris. The land the hospital was built on was offered free of charge by the local government and the total cost to build the hospital was US$605,970.

	By offering to the Amdo Eye Hospital you are benefiting others who are in great need, in particularly the people in Tibet who are blind, helping them to open their eyes and see, what an incredible joy and happiness you are giving them! However many hundreds and thousands of people who receive help from the Amdo Eye Hospital, for as long as it exists, they receive this unbelievable benefit because of your kindness and generosity.  From this you are creating unbelievable causes of happiness and success that will be achieved in this life and in future lives. This is the nature of the karma: from one cause you experience the result for hundreds and thousands of years. If you motivation is very pure when making this offering; thinking that it is only for their benefit, for these beings to be free from suffering, particularly the suffering of not being able to see. You are giving all these people the great happiness of seeing. This offering then becomes the cause of full enlightenment - the great liberation, the peerless happiness, the cessation of all the mistakes of the mind – gross and subtle defilements and the accomplishment of all the realizations, the qualities. Then of course there is inconceivable benefit for the other sentient being, for each person who is now able to see, you cannot imagine how much benefit they get. By opening their eyes it gives them unbelievable freedom and especially now they are able to see the holy objects - that purifies their minds so they can collects skies of merit.
–Lama Zopa Rinpoche, 2009

Latest News

In August 2011 Ven.Pemba Sherpa (FPMT Board member, resident teacher and co-director of Cham Tse Ling, in Hong Kong) visited the Amdo Eye Hospital to report on its progress and operations.

Read the report with latest photos.

Currently there are 24 people working in the hospital, this includes 4 doctors and 4 nurses who visit from the local Government hospital a few times a week to perform the actual surgeries. The hospital is three and half stories high and has 36 beds to accommodate patients.

The full price for cataract surgery is about US$750 (4800 CNY), however for patients who cannot afford, the surgery is offered for free or whatever amount they can afford. At this stage it is hard to run the hospital totally free of charge, but the plan is to be able to offer more and more free or low cost surgeries, as the hospital expands.

The inauguration of the building was in July 2010, it took a year to equip the hospital and get the necessary documents to be able to perform the surgeries and in August 2011 the hospital was officially opened to the public. In the last 4 weeks the hospital has performed 8 surgeries and 4 of these were offered free. As the hospital becomes better known and receives more funding and equipment it will be able to perform many more surgeries. Currently the hospital is one of the largest hospitals in Xining dedicated solely to performing eye surgery.

Immediate needs

The immediate need of the hospital is to purchase a laser surgery machine (Phacoemulsification machine). The cost for one of these machines is US$220,330 (1,280,000 CNY). FPMT is currently fundraising in order to be able to sponsor one, which will greatly help in the hospitals efficiency and will directly benefit those needing the surgeries.

The phacoemulsification machine breaks the cataract into tiny pieces and then suctions those pieces from the eye through a very small incision. Prior to the development of the phaco machine, the cataract was normally removed in one piece, requiring a larger incision, sutures, and more trauma to the eye. By having the phacoemulsification machine the whole procedure is much faster, less than 15 minutes per eye, it allows the patient to walk out of the surgical suite and resume normal activities within a few days.

Annual costs

The annual cost to run the hospital is US$125,313 (800,000 CNY). Currently the Amdo Eye Hospital is applying for grants and local Government funding in order to be self sustainable.

Thank you to all the kind benefactors who have helped to build the hospital and please do consider continuing to supporting this incredibly worthwhile project, in whatever way possible.

Please contribute to the Amdo Eye Hospital

For more information please contact: Ven Holly Ansett

The Amdo Eye Hospital is a project of FPMT Inc. All donations made to the fund are tax-deductible within the United States in accordance with IRS Code article 501(C)(3) to the extent allowed by law.

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