Eastern Regional Eye Care (EREC) Programme

A far-reaching eye care programme providing essential treatment and services to those at risk of avoidable blindness.

The programme takes eye screening camps into rural areas of Eastern Nepal. Photo: CBM/Biratnagar Eye Hospital.

In 1983, we entered a partnership with the Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh (NNJS), resulting in the construction of the Sagarmatha Choudhary Eye Hospital in Lahan.  A German ophthalmologist Dr Hennig began providing essential eye care services from the hospital to patients from the surrounding area and from across the border in India.

Since then, the programme has grown, with more than 576,000 eye surgeries having been performed - the majority of which are sight-restoring cataract operations.

The Eastern Regional Eye Care (EREC) Programme was formed to significantly reduce the prevalence of blind people in Eastern Nepal and therefore improve the quality of life of those with and at risk of avoidable blindness, including their care-givers and families.

The Programme's objectives are:

• To develop and strengthen the delivery of eye care at the primary, secondary and specialist level of service provision.
• To develop and implement cost effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of visual loss and avoidable blindness.
• To document and understand the changing patterns in eye disease and blindness, to enable effective planning of future eye care delivery.

In 2003, the EREC Programme undertook CBM's 5 millionth cataract operation.