Solukhumbu, November 21

More than 1,300 people benefited from a three-day health camp organised at Taksindu Primary School in Solukhumbu recently.

According to organisers, locals from Taksindu and more than 40 adjoining villages came for health check-up at the free health camp. Some people had to walk for a day to reach the health camp.

Karma Sherpa of Superior, Colorado, and Dr Gary Botstein of Decatur, Georgia, US, had recruited at least 30 volunteer physicians, nurses and clinicians from the US to support the mission in Nepal, according to Jordan Campbell, founder of Ramro Global.

“The medical team comprises optometrists and ophthalmologists, dentists and dental hygienists, rheumatologist, cardiologist, neurologist, endocrinologist, gynaecologist, physical therapists and several other doctors and nurses,” Campbell told THT.

Campbell said the volunteer physicians provided treatment inside nine classrooms of Taksindu Primary School while additional volunteers assisted with registration, intake and general operations outside on the ground of Taksindu Monastery.

“A temporary pharmacy was also set up on the premises of the school. A huge number of people turned in for eye check-up and over 1,000 eye glasses were distributed to patients,” American mountaineer Campbell added. This is the third consecutive year Taksindu Free Health Camp has been organised at remote Taksindu Monastery in Solukhumbu.

Karma and Dr Gary started the annual humanitarian mission in 2015 after the devastating earthquake badly damaged Taksindu Primary School, Taksindu Monastery and other infrastructure in the village.

Taksindu Primary School was recently rebuilt by local volunteers and employees of Sherpa Mountain Adventures. Initial funding for the school’s reconstruction — an impressive $80,000 USD — was raised through Frasca Food & Wine, a fine-dining establishment located in Boulder, Colorado.

Ramro Global, an international media organisation that spotlights important humanitarian stories, chronicled the three-day mission for a forthcoming documentary film. For the film project, Campbell sourced award-winning filmmaker Amy Marquis as the film’s director and Academy Award nominee Adrian Belec as director of photography. Marquis and Belec captured nearly 30 hours of film footage in Nepal.

The documentary film release date is scheduled for 2019 while North Face, La Sportiva and Osprey Packs provided initial support for the film.