Eye camp at Kohonnawala

Guess most of you know all about Kohonawala from Ashan (View Trip Report) and Sri (View Trip Report)

Reading Sri’s  Report made a few of us think of getting the wheel chair that was needed by the little boy in Kohonawala. With Sri’s help we made contact with the Hamuduruwo to get a bit more information. During the conversation he spoke of many older people who had bad eye sight but were unable not get spectacles. So could we arrange for something to be done about it?

On Poson Poya day a few of us climbed down to Kohonnawala, along with an absolutely fantastic ( more on that later) three member medical team from the Vision 2020 project of the Ministry of Health.

We decided to follow the route taken by Ashan, down, down, down from Modolsima.

start of the 3.5 hour hike down to the village

Down, down, down…

And finally, using an ambalama as it is meant to be used: for rest, and food!

Mid point and lunch break

Over 3 hours later we reached the village. Not very fast, but we were carrying (with the help of a villager) all the equipment needed for the eye camp including spectacles.

T20 champions!

The Champion V2020 – විස්සයි විස්සේ  team – entering the village. Dr. Asela Abeydeera, Ms. M.D. Priyangani, Ms. Nisansala Wickramasinghe. This is the team that carried out the eye camp. Such complete dedication, kindness and cheerfulness even when they themselves were dead tired, wanting a meal or a drink. Nothing stopped their work, nor how well they treated every single person who came to the camp. Best team ever!

A bit of a rest in the temple, a bath in the stream, food prepared according to the menu requested by Sri and it was time for the Poson Poya pinkama.

from the village, poson moon rised over the hills we crossed

The full moon rising over the hills we climbed down and bathing the village in silver light

Hamuduruwo preparing for the pinkama

Poson poya pinkama in the village

A special බුද්ධ වන්දනාව සහ පුජාව. According to the Hamuduruwo, Sri, Athula, Prasanna and Tony had helped out with getting the necessary items to make this pinkama possible.

Day 2, and we were up by 5.30 as the eye camp was scheduled to start at 6.30. And yes, the sun had risen by that time!

Eye camp starts – Iinitial screening

Team at work

Prepation

Testing and providing reading glasses

By the end of the eye camp at Kohonawala, about 45 reading glasses had been provided free, 10 patients had been identified as needing cataract operations. The Vision2020 team will arrange for free surgery and provide the lenses free of charge if we can provide transport for the patients.

Testing

Special issues are checked by the Doctor.

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Happy with their new reading glasses

The children who were attending the Kohonawala school were screened at the school. This gave us the opportunity to visit the school and meet the young head teacher/principle.

The school was extremely impressive. It was tiny. Just one hall and on the day we visited 13 children were in school. We huffed and puffed up the hill to the school , but there seemed to be no one there. There was total silence. The compound was spotlessly clean and the school looked so well cared for we decided to take a look. And…inside the hall all the students were busily and quietly studying, and the teacher was seated at the desk marking books.

Screening the students – none needed glasses.

Grade 4 and 5

Amazingly, this tiny well maintained school had excellent facilities. A neat and nice play area with swings donated by a group linked to the habour. A tiny computer room with a flat screen computer, dongle based internet connection ( yes, they had read the Lakdasun trip reports on Kohonawala!) and..a sparkling projector – all provided by the government under the development of small schools project.

Guess who were not disciplined – the visitors!

School head teacher and kids

computer lab

Back in the village, we visited the little boy for whom we are in the process of getting a wheel chair

Next time we will take him a wheel chair

Then, packed everything up – with most of the spectacles gone, the load was much less and started the walk out of the village. This time we took the route that Sri had taken, it’s a sort of jeep track and ends in the ‘Block Gal Oya’ (Loggal oya), from there we tried to travel in a three wheeler, but ended up pushing it up hill more than travelling in it!!

‘Block gal’ oya

Finally made it to Urumeethanne…to find the village was waiting expectantly for the eye team – a totally unscheduled eye camp!! Dr. Asela, Ms. Priyangi and Ms. Nissansala did not even pause for a drink of water, despite the exhausting walk they had just done. They immediately got down to business. About 10 more spectacles were provided and 2 cataract cases identified. This is what is called service with a smile.

Unscheduled at urumeetanna

And, at the end of a very satisfactory day, we opened up the lunch packets that the Kohonawala Hamuduruwo had packed for us, and had it with fresh Kurumba brought to us by the villagers of Urumeethanna.

lunch at 4pm

A very very satisfying trip Thank you to all those who helped make it a success.