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SALT LAKE CITY -- A unique project conceived and developed by a Utah charity is gaining momentum. The goal: to build an innovative medical center in the poor Himalayan country of Nepal. When it's completed, the center will play a key role in changing the lives of thousands.
As Jim Webber will tell you, he's no doctor.
"No, I'm a rug dealer," says Webber, who serves as the executive director of the Nepal Cleft and Burn Center.
His travels have led him on adventures around the world, especially in the mountainous countries of the Himalaya. He owns a rug-making factory in Katmandu, the capital of Nepal -- a poor country Webber wanted to help.
"If you want to give something back to a poor, third-world country, you have to choose your battle," he says.
Webber decided to focus on cleft lips and palettes, and burns; all are common, but difficult and often debilitating afflictions Nepal's health care system can't address. He joined forces Dr. Shankar Rai, a plastic surgeon.
"It's a really, really fortunate situation that we have friends who can help us in this endeavor," Rai says.
"You can do a cleft lip or palette relatively inexpensively on a child, and it turns his life around," Webber explains. "It's the difference between being ostracized or being accepted by society."
6 p.m. Friday, March 26
Foothill Oriental Rugs
1460 Foothill Dr., Salt Lake City
The pair established the Nepal Cleft and Burn Center and have broken ground on a three-floor, 13,000-square-foot clinic, funded by $300,000 in generous donations.
But they're not there yet. The Nepal Cleft and Burn Center is holding a fundraiser at Foothill Oriental Rugs Friday evening. They're hoping to raise an additional $300,000.
So far, Rai and his team have personally performed more than 10,000 cleft lip and palettes, and 4,000 burn reconstructions. The new center will help train the Nepalese to do many more.
"It's gratifying, for sure; and the gratification is even more when we can train more people -- doctors, nurses, therapists -- in that particular hospital," Rai says.
"It's really a good cause," Webber adds.
It's also a cause that's making a big difference.
E-mail: jdaley@ksl.com
