Iii L.B. BRILLIANT field who helped in important ways during the implementation of the survey: Dr. R. Chica!, Dr. U. Han Tun, Mr. Monga, and Mr. Regmi Gokarne; Glenn Hilbreth, Stuart Scott, and Major Tamang of the Kenting Earth Sciences, Ltd.; Mrs. B. Kolstad and Dr. G. P. Pokhrel, who helped in the survey office as well as in the field; Tim Gilbert, who developed the method used to measure total sunlight hours in the village sites; Robert Friedland, Tina Sandoval, Girija Brilliant, Suzanne Gilbert, and Jahanara Romney, all volun- teers from the Seva Foundation; Darryl Ward, the pilot of the Alouette m helicopter who worked tirelessly to carry teams to 29 remote villages in less than one month (and won the Robert E. Trimble Distinguished Helicopter Pilot of the Year Award for doing so), and Kelly Haller, his mechanic from the Evergreen Helicopter Company; Captain K. B. Bhandari, Dr. Parajuli (Chief Officer NMEO); Mr. Tara Bahadur Shrestha (Regional Malaria Officer, NMEO); Dr. B. R. Pandey (Chief of Family Planning/MCH); Dr. Oli (Chief of Mapping Project, HMG); Mr. D. P. Chapagai (Manager, National Computer Centre); Mr. N. P. Nayan (Division Chief, National Computer Centre); Mr. N. K. Upretti (Operation Officer, National Computer Centre); Mr. Pramod Tuladhan (Programmer, National Computer Centre); Mr. Ashok Acharya (Programmer, National Computer Centre); Mrs. Romila Acharya (Trainer); Mr. Tek Narayan RaJbansi (Trainer); Mr. Sharma (Sahayogi Printing Press); and Mr. Mukund Baidya (Video Photographer, Family Planning/MCH). However, the success of this effort will be judged not on how many pages of data were produced, but by the simple criterion of whether the survey has helped to provide information that can be used to help Nepal conquer avoidable blindness. In June, 1981, the fieldwork and preliminary data collection and cleaning were finished and the data tapes were brought back to the Seva Foundation. An analysis team was brought together and headquartered in the Department of Epidemiology of The University of Michigan. In addition to Seva Foundation staff, the team included members from the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health; the Department of Ophthalmology; the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research; and the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health. Because the Nepal Blindness Survey was the first of its kind, some problems inherent in eye epidemiology had never been faced before. For example, implementing the recommendations for determining the cause of visual impairment and the etiology of ocular
