The Hong Kong and mainland Chinese doctors heading to Cambodia on a mission to give sight to the blind

Dr Chow Pak-chin and other medics are heading abroad to remove cataracts from thousands of the continent’s poorest people

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Dr Chow says he expects to find patients in Cambodia with much more serious cataracts than patients in Hong Kong, requiring more complicated surgery. Photo: Emily Tsang

Published: 11:45am, 16 Jun 2018Updated: 11:45am, 16 Jun 2018

“Helping patients to see again is a tremendously rewarding experience. This is one reason why ophthalmologists in Hong Kong are very passionate about charity work,” Dr Chow Pak-chin says.

Chow, a renowned ophthalmologist, is one of the masterminds behind an overseas charity scheme aimed at eradicating cataract blindness in Cambodia, the first of its kind under China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” to boost trade and international ties.

A total of 41 Hong Kong doctors, along with medics from Guangxi province, have volunteered for the mission. Over two years, they will perform free eye surgery on thousands of Cambodians from poor villages, who would otherwise have no access to medical care or knowledge of how to prevent themselves from going blind.

According to Chow, the scheme was made possible after he had a casual phone conversation with former city leader Leung Chun-ying, during which Chow mentioned that a lack of formal connections made it difficult for local doctors to offer help in other Asian countries.

Cambodia is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations. Photo: AP

Leung promised Chow he would do something. He later raised the issue with the foreign affairs department in Beijing, which promptly decided a charity scheme should be launched in Cambodia.