A Photographic Story of Kalikot Camp

The Kalikot District is one of the most underprivileged areas of Nepal. Communities from this area are severely discriminated against and the majority are living in extreme poverty.

The most recent Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation outreach camp took place in the Raskot municipality of Kalikot on the 12th and 13th of November. The team performed 152 surgeries over a two-day period, an achievement we are elated to share.

In communities such as Raskot and surrounding villages, residents live in extreme poverty and journeys to the nearest eye hospital can take up to two days. It is often their only option to either suffer with cataracts, or hope that a charity, such as the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation, performs a direct intervention into the community.

Below are a series of photos aiming to take readers through the journey our team took, from the mountainous terrain travelled, the logistics of carrying and setting up an outreach camp in hilly Western Nepal, to the joyful reactions of patients that had their sight restored.

A porter carries equipment across a steam

Porters climbing uphill carrying equipment for the camp

Patients sat waiting for their surgeries outside the camp that took place at a local hospital

A patient undergoing numbing to the cataract-ridden eye

A Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation team member performing eye exams on patients

An elderly man entertains his fellow patients with a Nepalese wind instrument

Patients post-surgery awaiting their bandage removal

A patient beaming at the camera as she waits for her bandages to be removed

The work of the Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation in places such as Kalikot aims to eradicate needless blindness, and in turn contribute towards ending extreme poverty, a UN Sustainable Development Goal.

The Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation was founded in March 2021 by London philanthropist Tej Kolhi and Kathmandu ‘God of Sight’ Dr Sanduk Ruit. As of November 2022 the NGO had screened 170,022 patients and cured 22,663of blindness at 91 outreach camps in Nepal, Bhutan and Ghana. The Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation is a restricted fund operating under the auspices of Prism The Gift Fund, registered UK charity number 1099682. The Foundation targets the #1 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of reducing poverty by making large-scale surgical interventions to cure blindness at the grassroots in the developing world. All treatments are provided completely free, with 100% of the funding coming from Tej Kohli and the Kohli family.