xlviii L.B. BRILLIANT smallpox-to attempt to adapt some of the lessons from smallpox, and to investigate the epidemiology of blindness. All of the epidemiologists who worked on the Nepal Blindness Survey are, in fact, smallpox eradication "alumni." The preliminary ideas for the emerging survey were developed during and shortly after the founding meeting of the Seva Foundation, held in Waldenwoods, Michigan, in December, 1978. Among the inspiring people who attended that meeting and generously provided the seed money for developing the Nepal Blindness Programme was Professor Leslie Kish of the Survey Research Center, who provided a general design for a feasibility study to test some survey methods. In March, 1979, the Seva Foundation carried out a five-village feasibility study during which 1,131 Nepalese were examined by Dr. Ram Prasad Pokhrel and Dr. Carole West. The clinical protocol for that feasibility study was developed with the assistance of Dr. Chandler Dawson and the late Dr. Mario Tarizzo, formerly head of the WHO Prevention of Blindness Programme. Dr. Girija Brilliant, a social scientist from The University of Michigan (and my wonderful wife), helped develop the protocols for that feasibility study and wrote a Seva Foundation technical report about the study. The feasibility study was made possible by help from Dr. R. Chica}, then WHO Programme Coordinator for Nepal, Dr. Laxman Poudyal, then Secretary of Health, His Majesty's Government of Nepal, Dr. Uprety, International Health Officer in the Ministry of Health, and Mr. Thapa of JAL airlines, who coordinated helicopter services to enable the survey teams to visit remote sites. Drs. David Smith and Lawrence Stiffman of the Applied Statistics Laboratory and The University of Michigan provided assistance in data management and analysis, as did Dr. James Lepkowski and Professor Richard Landis, also of The University of Michigan. Al- though it was not intended to be an accurate reflection of the entire Nepal population, the five-village feasibility survey was remarkably accurate in a number of its estimates. On the basis of the results of the feasibility study, and on the strength of the plan for the Nepal Blindness Programme, the Ministry of Foreign Assistance, Government of the Netherlands, generously agreed to provide the initial funding for the Nepal Blind- ness Programme, which included $290,000 for the Nepal Blindness Survey. At this point, the project, which had been organized as a Seva Foundation project, was expanded as a joint undertaking of His Majesty's Government of Nepal and the World Health Organization. This structure made possible a broad coalition of inter-
