SOLUKHUMBU: More than 1,300 people were served during a three-day health camp recently organised at the Taksindu Primary School in Solukhumbu district.

According to the organisers, locals from Taksindu and the surrounding over 40 villages attended the free health camp while some of the attendees seeking healthcare traveled on foot for a full day to reach Taksindu.

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

“This included optometrists and ophthalmologists; dentists & dental hygienists; a rheumatologist, a cardiologist, a neurologist, an endocrinologist; a gynecologist, a physical therapist and several other doctors and nurses providing general patient evaluations,” he told THT.

Campbell said that the volunteer physicians provided care inside nine of the Taksindu primary school classrooms while additional volunteers assisted with registration, intake and general operations outside on the grounds of the Taksindu Monastery.

“A temporary pharmacy was also set up inside the main part of the school while eye-care was a huge component of the camp and over 1,000 pairs of prescription glasses were distributed to local patients,” the American mountaineer added.

Most notably, at least one prosthetic eye was provided to a 20-year-old woman and an elderly man was diagnosed with an advancing eye-cancer; arrangements were made for his travel to Kathmandu for surgery and follow-up treatment, he described.

The year 2018 marks the third consecutive year of the Taksindu Free Health Camp held at the remote Taksindu Monastery in Solukhumbu region. Karma and Dr Gary started the annual humanitarian mission in 2015 in response to devastating earthquake that badly damaged the Taksindu Primary School, the iconic Taksindu Monastery and the surrounding hillside villages. “Three years on, Karma Sherpa’s initial humanitarian activation has turned into a remarkable stewardship event in Taksindu, providing free health care services to the entire region,” he said.

Taksindu Primary School, which was recently rebuilt by local volunteers and employees of Sherpa Mountain Adventures, based out of Colorado and Kathmandu. 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. “Sherpa’s remarkable story of returning to his mountainous home in Nepal, generously giving back to his community, is the foundation for Ramro Global’s first-ever documentary,” Campbell, a veteran of several Himalayan expeditions and an award-winning documentary filmmaker, said.

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.