HCP work in Myanmar featured on CBS 60 Minutes

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On Sunday, April 16, CBS aired a segment that featured HCP co-founders Drs. Sanduk Ruit and Geoffrey Tabin, on one of America’s most prestigious shows, 60 Minutes.

Program host Bill Whitaker and a team of filmmakers joined Ruit and Tabin during a cataract outreach event at a hospital in Taunggyi, Myanmar. During the four-day event, the two surgeons and their team provided training for 30 local ophthalmologists and performed 700 cataract surgeries.

The segment focused on the work of the two doctors, how they came to found the Himalayan Cataract Project and how they have refined a system of high-volume, high-quality cataract surgery delivery, optimized for the developing world.

Earlier this year, by naming the Himalayan Cataract Project a semi-finalist in its 100&Change competition, the MacArthur Foundation recognized curable blindness as one of the greatest challenges of our time. CBS’s 60 Minutes - the oldest and most watched news magazine in the US - has now brought this issue to the attention of a wider audience, providing an important platform for global eye care and outlining why eradicating curable blindness is so important.

“It’s people’s eyes”, says Whitaker during the interview. “It’s people’s lives”, adds Tabin, emphasizing the reduction in life expectancy associated with cataract blindness, in both adults and children. “The inability to work or attend school is not only a handicap for the blind person but also for their families. Seeing our work recognized and celebrated is an immense honor and a powerful reminder of why we are doing what we do. We wish to thank CBS and its staff for their amazing work, to all of our supporters who helped us spread the word, and to all the new supporters who join our cause after the broadcast. You make our work possible.”

If you missed the show, you can watch the segment and read the article directly on the 60 Minutes’ website.