KATHMANDU, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- A 2024 Silk Road brightness and benevolence journey was launched on Saturday in the Kathmandu Valley, with 70 underprivileged cataract patients in Nepal covered under the program.
These patients shall undergo cataract surgeries free of charge by doctors from Shenzhen, a city in South China's Guangdong Province.
Over 600 underprivileged cataract patients in Nepal had regained their sight following surgeries since the Silk Road brightness campaign was launched in 2014, said Sarbottam Shrestha, first vice president of the executive committee of the Arniko Society comprising scholars and experts who graduated from China.
More than 2,000 cataract patients in countries including Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Laos have been treated through 100-percent successful surgeries during the past decade.
Addressing the launch ceremony held at a hospital in Bhaktapur, a city in the Kathmandu Valley, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen Song noted that China-Nepal medical and health cooperation has achieved fruitful results in recent years, bringing tangible benefits to people of the two countries and becoming a special part of the friendship.
He called the Silk Road brightness program "one of the highlights" in the cooperation.
On the occasion, medical supplies were donated to the Arniko Society and the Chinese Temple. ■
