The Amdo Eye Hospital

Photos • PowerPoint

After more than six years of development, FPMT was extremely pleased to announce the opening of the Amdo Eye Hospital, in Xining, the capital of Amdo, Tibet in July of 2010. 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.

The first patients to have cataract surgery at the Amdo Eye Hospital.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.

Please watch a short video on the Amdo Eye Hospital.

Modeled on the already successful Lhasa Eye Clinic, the Amdo Eye Hospital provides 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 (Please read a letter of support from Dr. Sanduk Ruit).

The Simplest Miracle

Dr. Sanduk Ruit performing cataract surgery.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 calls this surgery, "The best thing a human can do in five minutes."

For the past six years FPMT has been committed to raising the funds to build the Amdo Eye Hospital along with the the kind contributions 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.

The annual cost to run the Amdo Eye Hospital is US$125,313 (800,000 CNY).

	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.
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche