Conner chats with school children. Twenty-five dollars can restore sight. Purulia Rotary has provided covered bus stops to shelter people during the monsoons. Shopping in Kathmandu $1,000 bought 50 cows. Now they have excess milk in Sirubari.

September 25, 2007

Chuck Conner wants to make the world a better place, and he knows that many people have greater needs than those in rural Appalachia.

So when te uses vacation days from his job with the Rural Health Education Partnership he lends a helping hand in the Kingdom of Nepal and in northern India where the human needs are extreme.

Nepal is home to 23 million souls in an area about the size of Arkansas. Outside of Africa, it is the poorest country in the world. With an average life expectancy of 51 years, and an annual income of $270 per person, less than one out of three of the indigenous population has access to a safe water supply. There is one medical doctor for every 20,000 people.

Conner recognized that the Rotary Foundation might enable him to multiply his efforts. And as a member of a local club in Ripley, and in partnership with Rotary International District 3290, he has made three trips in four years to bring relief and assistance to that part of the world.

In partnership with the Purulia Rotary Club of West Bengal, mobile eye clinics have been provided to remote villages where 1.7 million out of two million cases of blindness would respond to treatment -- and even be cured by a simple surgical procedure.

With a Foundation grant and assistance from at least six local clubs in West Virginia, RI District 3290 has built and supported nine hospitals and clinics for eye care in the area.

In one month over 2600 patients were examined. Ten cataract surgeries and 355 IOL (intraocular lens) procedures were performed. And 291 prescriptions were made for glasses.

A single cataract operation or lens replacement costs $25. "It is amazing," Conner told Putnam Rotarians today, "how much can be done with just a little help."

Special funding through a Foundation matching grant totaled $14,134. This gift purchased a surgical microscope, an elevating surgical table, hospital beds, an eye refractor, and hospital supplies.

Always searching for partners in service, Conner has brought together a coalition between his Ripley club and the Rotary Club of West Patan to bring relief to 28 schools and villages in rural areas in Nepal.

The Patan group, located a few miles south of the capital city of Kathmandu, has procured science lab equipment and supplies for remote villages accessible only by five or six hours of travel over winding mountain tracks.

Conner worked with Patan Rotarians to assemble first-aid kits -- often the only medical supplies available -- for these communities in the Himalayas.

In 2004, some 50 cows were purchased with a grant of $1,000. Now the cows are producing enough milk to sell or barter for other needs.

Village elders are now seeking resources to build a milk chilling plant.in Sirubari.

Corporate sponsors, individuals, civic groups and churches have all responded to the invitation by Conner to extend assistance to northern India and Nepal. Among these are local Rotary Clubs in West Virginia -- Brooke, Buckhannon, Pt. Pleasant, Putnam, Ripley and Spencer.

There is a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction for the growing numbers who have joined hands to bring health services and economic assistance. But perhaps the more enduring achievement is the bond of friendship which has been built between Appalachia and the Indian subcontinent.

Through his own labor of love -- and with a bit of help -- Chuck Conner is making the world into a better place.

Conner accepts a pennant from the Rotary Club of Purulia.