#WHAT THE FUZZ IS A CAMPAIGN TO RAISE AWARENESS AND TO HELP CURE PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM CATARACT INDUCED BLINDNESS IN NEPAL.

For those who are lucky, cataracts happen to you late in life; you go through a minor surgery and wear an eye patch till that heals. However, an appalling number of the not-so-lucky end up losing their eyesight due to cataracts a lot sooner. According to statistics of 2011, of the 95, 765 blind people in Nepal, 62.2% of them are cataract victims.

Taking into consideration this fact and the shaming irony of the availability of world class services in ophthalmology in Nepal, Anthropose have taken it upon themselves to do their part to help. Anthropose is Nepal’s first for-profit social-good sunglass company. For every 10 pairs sold of their product, they will provide a free cataract surgery to a person in need.

The very purpose of this campaign is to focus on a huge problem that is quite underrated in Nepal, and that is an eye related disease called cataract or commonly known as ‘MOTIBINDU’. We had a chat with Ms. Kipa Dali, Business Development Representative of Anthropose who elucidated about their campaign: #What the Fuzz. “We need to do it in a manner that will help more and more people. People here in Nepal are still not aware about this disease. Till now we have had 48 surgeries conducted but we need to help more people. As our slogan goes: ‘Give. Get. Change’, when you purchase our sunglasses, the typical exchange of product with cash does happen, but a part of that cash goes to our fund. This fund will go on to help cataract sufferers have surgeries. Patients of this disease don’t suffer individually. Their families too are dragged into this mess. So when an individual helps us, the help is felt by many.

Nepal has world class eye care services but the high number of cataract sufferers is due to a lack of awareness. So we decided to act on it. We want to raise awareness among the  people of Kathmandu first and then proceed towards other regions because only Kathmandu is not Nepal. We hope to conduct a target of 600 surgeries throughout this campaign this year.”

#WhatTheFuzz is a campaign questioning and raising awareness about the prevalence of cataract induced blindness in Nepal. Quite smartly done, they want to address the elephant in the room which doubles as a metaphor for cataract and the extent of its prevalence. You can help them spread the word about #WhatTheFuzz and cataract by completing a simple challenge, sharing it on your social media and nominating 3 friends to do the same and the main purpose is to know how it feels to live with cataracts.

Here’s how you can go about it:

1. Get hold of a pen/pencil and a notebook.

2. Find a comfortable place to sit down.

3. Close your eyes and record yourself drawing an elephant.

4. Showcase your drawing to the camera.

5. Challenge any 3 friends on the video.

6. Post it on your Facebook and Instagram with the text below to help address the elephant in the room.

Alternatively, you can help them by directly donating to their giving partner Tilganga Institute for Ophthalmology or buying a pair of Anthropose sunglasses.

“We also have college acquisitions in various parts of Kathmandu, because we need participation from the youth

where they can aware people in different fields and parts of Nepal. We will have entrepreneurial sessions, and free eye checkups and discussions from our team as well. Also, we will be giving out discount coupons to the students and the staff members in colleges that we will be participating in this campaign ” Kipa went on to explain.

They also have fun filled events lined up. They have corporate acquisitions and another cause called the “two hour challenge”, where people will blindfold themselves for two hours and do the things that they normally do in their house or at work. This will give them an idea about how hard it is to do their daily work if you have cataract. They also have fuzzy futsal where players will be provided with fuzzy spectacles before they start the game where they will have to wear it for the entirety of the period. Also, other plans include watching a 3D movie without the 3D glasses. There are celebrities who are interested in helping with this cause and Anthropose have had lots of positive response but urge each and every one to help and try solve this national issue.

This program will be initiated from 28th November 2016. Anthropose have partnered up various ventures for this program, and have approached influencers to help us with this cause which you can see in our social media sites.

The campaign will be held for 6 months, which will cover Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Narayanghat as well.