Karakoram mountains at golden hour, Skardu, Pakistan

Mobile Surgical Camp · Sep 28 – Oct 3, 2026 · Skardu

Restoring Sight. Rebuilding Lives.

A high-impact, $72* surgical intervention in the isolated mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Fund the Next Surgery — $72

Mission Status

105%

$12,637 raised of $12,000·All 150 surgeries funded·58 gifts

Update·We passed our goal. Every gift beyond it becomes another surgery — nothing is redirected and nothing sits idle.

The Problem

A solvable crisis, hidden behind a mountain range.

The National Crisis

Out of 207 million citizens in Pakistan, 1.12 million are legally blind. Visual impairment removes adults from the workforce and forces family members into full-time caregiving, destabilizing entire households.

Tragically, most cases are entirely curable. Cataracts cause 66.7% of Pakistan's blindness — yet can be permanently cured through a single, 15-minute surgical intervention.

Why Skardu?

Gilgit-Baltistan's geography turns a public health crisis into a humanitarian emergency. Skardu sits at 2,500 meters — a 22-hour journey from Islamabad, with winter road closures that make medical travel nearly impossible.

Doctors per population
1 : 4,100

vs. 1:1,206 nationally

Patients screened
3,411

~250 needed surgery

The Financial Architecture

Every dollar accounted for. Every surgery a public good.

For our inaugural Skardu mission, leadership, medical expertise, administration, and fundraising are provided entirely by volunteers. After standard payment processing fees, every public donation flows directly to patient care and surgical logistics.

The $72 Miracle*

$72*.00

100% Volunteer-Run. 0% Overhead.

For the 2026 Skardu Mission.

Goal met: $12,636.64 raised against our $12,000 mission capitalization (105%). All 150 targeted surgeries are funded, and every additional dollar underwrites another surgery — every dollar accounted for.

DALYs Averted
4–6

per surgery, lifetime

Return Ratio
83 : 1

economic return on cost

*Card and PayPal donations net standard payment processor fees (~2–3%). Zelle transfers carry zero fees — 100% reaches Skardu.

Where Your Dollar Goes

100¢ of every dollar reaches the patient.

Surgical consumables and the logistics to deliver them. Nothing else.

Project First Light

100% patient care

Sector Benchmark1

75% / 25% care / admin

Patient careAdministrative overhead

Our team donates their time, travel, and technical work. There is no office, no salaried staff, no fundraising fee. Every $72 you give buys one surgery — not a fraction of one.

1 Charity Navigator considers 25% administrative overhead the upper bound of an "efficient" medical nonprofit; sector average is 17–25%.

Your Gift Went Further Than We Promised

$72$50per surgery,
all-in*

We asked for $72 a surgery because that was the honest all-in number when we set the goal. Since then we signed a direct agreement with the Al-Ehsan Welfare Eye Hospital to supply the surgical work, the intraocular lenses and the post-operative medication at a fixed price per patient — billed only on the patients we actually treat. That agreement, plus our partners covering the cost of patient outreach, brought the true all-in cost down to about $50.

Nothing was cut. Same surgeons, same lenses, same follow-up. We simply stopped renting what we could contract for directly.

* A pre-mission estimate, not a final figure. Ground transport, hotel taxes and meals are not yet invoiced, and the exchange rate moves. The audited figure will be published in our post-mission report.

Happening Now

Finding the patients

A cataract camp is only as good as the people who show up for it, and in a district the size of Gilgit-Baltistan nobody simply walks in. Our partners at the Marafie Foundation Pakistan and Kuwait Medical Complex are running six outreach clinics across the valleys — driving to the villages, examining people on the spot, and registering everyone who needs surgery. They bear the entire cost of this themselves.

  1. Gulapur, Shigar
  2. Babu Ishaq Dispensary, Shigar
  3. Uswa School, Manthoka, Kharmang
  4. Civil Hospital, Rondu
  5. DHQ Hospital, Khaplu
  6. Kuwait Medical Complex, Skardu

Kharmang to Khaplu is about six hours of mountain road.

Our Partners

Anchored by institutions with decades of operational record.

Implementing Partner

Marafie Foundation

A Kuwait-based humanitarian foundation with a 40-year track record across South Asia. Marafie provides logistical command, vendor relationships, and the regional authority required to mobilize a surgical team into Gilgit-Baltistan within days.

Surgical Host

Kuwait Medical Complex, Skardu

The 100-bed referral hospital serving all of Baltistan. Its operating theaters, recovery wards, and Sehat Sahulat-approved billing infrastructure make the "Double Impact" reimbursement model possible. Hosting the camp September 28 – October 3, 2026.

Hospital Capacity
100-Bed

Hospital Capacity

Schools Built
376

Schools Built

Relief Managed
$22M

Relief Managed

Annual Camps
15+

Annual Camps

Clinical Excellence

The medical team behind every restored sight.

A six-person operative unit deployed to Skardu for the six-day mobile camp, September 28 – October 3, 2026 — combining surgical leadership, attending ophthalmologists, and senior theater technicians.

Dr. Adeel Randhawa

Assistant Professor & Consultant Ophthalmologist

Dr. Adeel Randhawa

Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Lahore General Hospital and Consultant Ophthalmologist at EYESITE, Gulberg. Over a decade leading operative planning, theater protocols, and post-op review.

Dr. Usman Imtiaz

Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology

Dr. Usman Imtiaz

Experienced ophthalmologist skilled in cataract surgery, retinal surgery, LASIK, keratoconus, glaucoma, and dry eye. FRCSEd (UK), Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh; FCPS, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan.

Dr. Muhammad Muslim

Final-Year FCPS Resident, Ophthalmology

Dr. Muhammad Muslim

Resident Eye Surgeon (PG3) at Lahore General Hospital, managing OPD and surgical care. Previously Medical Officer with Gilgit-Baltistan Health Department in Skardu for nearly three years. MBBS, Allama Iqbal Medical College.

Dr. Fahd Kamal Akhtar

Senior Registrar, Ophthalmology — Mayo Hospital Lahore

Dr. Fahd Kamal Akhtar

Senior Registrar in Ophthalmology at Mayo Hospital Lahore, bringing surgical experience and pre-operative assessment expertise to the Skardu deployment across screening, biometry, and candidacy review.

Senior Technician

Dr. Khizer's Team

Senior Technician

Senior member of the in-theater technical team supporting the deployment. Oversees instrument sterilization, microscope and phaco-machine calibration, and surgical tray readiness across both operating theaters. Profile to follow.

OR Technician

Surgical Support Staff

OR Technician

Operating-room support staff coordinating patient transfer, intra-operative materials handling, and recovery handoff to ward nursing. Keeps theater turnover on schedule across the 150-case deployment. Profile to follow.

Youth Leadership Incubator

The Next Generation of Giving.

This camp is a leadership incubator. Rayyed, Raffay, Rahmir, and Abdullah donate their time and technical skills to ground operations — proof that meaningful philanthropy can begin before adulthood. Our blueprint is designed to be replicated by other families seeking hands-on humanitarian work.

Portrait of Rayyed

Field Operations

Rayyed

Coordinates patient intake logistics and on-site triage workflow during the camp's daily 5am setup.

Portrait of Raffay

Documentation Lead

Raffay

Captures patient stories and post-op outcomes for the transparency report.

Portrait of Abdullah

International Coordinator

Abdullah

Canadian donor relations, cross-border coordination, remote support.

Portrait of Rahmir

Youth Engagement

Rahmir

Peer fundraising, school presentations, social media amplification.