With just one day left, anticipation is building ahead of the Rajiv Ruparelia Memorial Free Eye Camp, a major medical outreach expected to transform the lives of thousands of people in Teso and neighbouring regions.
The three-day sight-saving camp will run from March 27 to 29, 2026, at Bukedea Teaching Hospital, where patients will receive free eye care services including screening, treatment, cataract surgeries and spectacles.
Organised by the Ruparelia Foundation in honour of the late businessman and philanthropist Rajiv Ruparelia, the camp is expected to attract more than 5,000 beneficiaries from eastern and northern Uganda.
Organisers have called upon people suffering from eye problems, poor vision, cataracts and other related conditions to take advantage of the free medical intervention.
“This is a life-changing opportunity for many people who have struggled with eye conditions for years but have been unable to access treatment,” one of the organisers said ahead of the outreach.
The initiative comes just days after Speaker of Parliament Anita Among donated Shs50 million towards the camp, with part of the money earmarked to support a special “vision fund” aimed at helping patients with rare and complicated eye conditions from remote communities.
According to the foundation, the programme goes beyond routine treatment and seeks to identify people who have silently lived with blindness or severe visual impairment for years.
Businessman Dr Sudhir Ruparelia, Rajiv’s father, recently revealed that mobile outreach clinics have already been deployed in some areas to trace and assess patients in need of urgent intervention.
The Bukedea camp is part of a wider effort to preserve Rajiv Ruparelia’s legacy of service, compassion and community empowerment, with the foundation confirming that the eye camp will now become a biennial programme.
As the countdown enters its final hours, residents from Teso and surrounding districts have been urged to turn up in large numbers and make use of the free services.
