borehole Archives - Operation Eyesight

We truly are stronger together!

Admin — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 08:55:33 +0000

In October, Operation Eyesight joined the global eye health community in celebrating World Sight Day and the undeniable fact that we’re “Stronger Together.” This theme carried through to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness’ 10^th General Assembly in Durban, South Africa, which I had the opportunity to attend. It was four days chock-full of meetings and presentations, including three presentations by our international staff.

I’m incredibly proud of the great work Operation Eyesight is doing at the community level, and as I listened to our staff showcase our program models and demonstrate the impact we are creating, well… I got goosebumps. And after visiting our teams in Zambia and Kenya and seeing our projects first-hand, I know that we truly are stronger together.

Our sight-saving work is possible thanks to our talented and dedicated staff across three continents, our strong relationships with local governments and partner hospitals, and, most importantly, our generous donors. Thank you all!

We’re proud of Dr. Boateng Wiafe! At the General Assembly, he was honoured as an Eye Health Hero, a tribute sponsored by Fondation L’Occitane. Dr. Bo is our Director, Quality and Advocacy, and is based in Ghana.

Our work in Zambia would not be possible without this dedicated team. From left to right: Patson Tembo, Country Manager; me (Brian Foster); Chiboni Musweu, Program Coordinator; Chishimba Machaya, Management Information System Officer; and Chitengi Mihova, Finance and Administrative Officer.

I had the opportunity to accompany our team on a monitoring visit to one of our water projects in Sinazongwe, Zambia. This borehole was established in 2009 in a village called Siabuswi. Thanks to our donors, families now have clean water for drinking, watering their gardens and livestock, and washing hands and faces – which helps stop the spread of the blinding eye disease trachoma.

After a seven-hour car ride in 40-degree Celsius heat, I was ready for a drink from the borehole, too.

I also had the opportunity to go on a monitoring visit to two of our water projects in Kenya’s Maasai Mara district. This borehole was established in a community called Olooriri and, as you can see, it’s in high demand. While their livestock drink from a trough a short distance away from the borehole, women and children form a queue by lining up their water jugs.

When we first started drilling a borehole in this community in 2013, the school had about 125 students. Today, the school has over 800 students, including this Maasai girl.

In Kenya, I attended a PEEK demonstration event in Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa. PEEK is a smartphone app that stands for Portable Eye Examination Kit. I had the chance to try out the app and test someone’s vision with the “tumbling E” eye chart.

We’re in the early stages of implementing our Hospital-Based Community Eye Health Program in partnership with Narok District Hospital. We’ve been working with the hospital since the early 2000s, and it was wonderful to meet some of the staff there. Together, we’re working to reach the unreached in Kenya.From left to right: Alice Mwangi, Country Manager of Kenya, Operation Eyesight; Francis, Director, Narok Eye Hospital; me (Brian Foster); Kashinath Bhoosnurmath, Global Director, Programmes, Operation Eyesight; and John Sironka, cataract surgeon.

I hope you enjoyed my photo highlights! I’d love to chat with you further about Operation Eyesight’s work in Africa, as well as India and Nepal. Send me an email – I’d love to hear from you!

Thank you again for your support!

The post We truly are stronger together! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Our goal in Kenya: no more trachoma

Admin — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 09:28:38 +0000

Ngoswani in Narok is just one of many villages where Operation Eyesight has built boreholes. They have a dramatic impact on life and health in the community.

When Operation Eyesight drilled our first well in Kenya in 2007, we were following the World Health Organization-endorsed SAFE (Surgery, Antibiotics, Face-washing, Environmental change) strategy to eliminate painful, blinding trachoma. Thanks to our amazing donors, we’ve made great progress on that goal, so much that we’re now part of a plan to completely eradicate trachoma from Kenya by 2019!

Because trachoma is a bacterial infection caused by poor sanitation and is spread by flies, eliminating it won’t be easy. But by working with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, and other non-profits like our friends at Fred Hollows Foundation, we’re confident it can be done.

Our efforts are focused on Kenya’s Narok and West Pokot regions, where our donors are helping us dramatically improve the lives of many people. Their generosity is allowing us to drill boreholes to improve sanitation and prevent the spread of trachoma. The construction of latrines and the provision of clean water for face washing is essential in stopping the cycle of repeated trachoma infections that impact victims of this awful disease.

At Ichangipusi, also in Narok, their new borehole encouraged a school to be opened in 2013. With support from the community, school management initiated a vigorous water, sanitation and hygiene program, which prevents the spread of trachoma.

That support is also allowing us to train eye care professionals, since Kenya has just one ophthalmologist for every 450,000 people. Those trained professionals are performing more surgeries to alleviate trichiasis, the painful result of repeated trachoma infections that turns the eyelids in, causing the eyelashes to scrape the eyeball. Because of our donors, we’re also able to provide mass campaigns of antibiotic distribution to cure those currently suffering from the bacteria that causes trachoma.

Local villagers watch a borehole being drilled in West Pokot district. Because water is so precious, we work with communities so that they raise the funds to maintain the borehole equipment and manage this valuable resource in the long-term.

There are other benefits to our approach of providing clean water and improving sanitation. They include increased enrollment of pupils and retention of teachers in schools where boreholes have been developed, reduction of incidences of other water borne diseases, and increased time and productivity, especially for women and girls.

We want our donors to know that our dream of ending this painful, blinding disease in Kenya is possible because of them. We join millions of Kenyans in saying “Thank you!” to the people who are making this amazing progress possible!

The post Our goal in Kenya: no more trachoma appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Water project brings life to Kenyan village

Admin — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 09:38:59 +0000

Access to safe water and sanitation facilities in Kenya has traditionally been a challenge, particularly in rural areas. In Ichangipusi village in Narok South District, the primary source of water used to be a laga (a seasonal riverbed).

Villagers would journey more than three hours to collect water from unprotected, shallow wells dug in the riverbed. Children, mostly girls, would bring containers with them to school so they could fetch water on their long seven-kilometre trek back home.

This labourious process to collect water came to an end in 2010, when Operation Eyesight developed a borehole in Ichangipusi village to help in the fight against trachoma, a painful but preventable eye disease that causes blindness.

The borehole is connected to a diesel-powered pumping system, which pumps water to a 10,000-litre storage tank. The water is then distributed to a communal water point, which serves about 3,100 people.

The availability of fresh water allowed for a school to be opened in the village in May 2013. Before the school was built, children would not start school until they were 10 to 12 years old and able to walk the long distance to Endonyo Narasha Primary School. The new school, however, caters to younger, pre-primary school children. It currently has 76 students (35 boys and 41 girls) between the ages of three and seven. School management plans to eventually expand the school to full primary school status, meaning children of all ages will be able to attend.

With support from the community, school management initiated a vigorous water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) program at the school. They constructed two eco-latrines (facilities used as toilets) and strategically placed washing stations outside the latrines and classrooms.

Clean water and proper hygiene help prevent the spread of trachoma, which otherwise spreads easily through contact with eye discharge from infected people’s hands, towels and clothing, and through direct transmission by flies. Fresh water and sanitation also dramatically improve the general health and prosperity of the whole community.

The community started a small garden next to the borehole. Using water from the borehole, they grow vegetables, such as spinach, kale, carrots and corn. The school is able to feed its students using produce from the garden.

It is incredible to see the impact that one borehole can have on an entire village! Our donors truly are making a difference in the lives of others. Thank you! To learn more about Operation Eyesight’s trachoma projects in Narok, visit our website.

The post Water project brings life to Kenyan village appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Borehole brings happiness to all

Admin — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 09:38:56 +0000

Christopher Tengwa, 57, lives in the Tulonga village of Sinazongwe district, Zambia. He works as a peasant farmer to provide for his family, including his 11 children.

Christopher and his family used to live in the Zambezi floodplain where the land was fertile, but the Zambian government’s construction of the gigantic Kariba Dam forced them upland where water was scarce and their only source, the Sikebo stream, would often dry up.

Every day was a challenge for Christopher and his family to find water for themselves and their livestock. They were only able to survive by digging into the banks of the stream to create shallow wells. Even then, the water they managed to find brought with it diarrhea and fostered other diseases such as trachoma, a bacterial infection that causes blindness.

Fortunately, all of that changed in 2013 when, thanks to donor support, Operation Eyesight dug a borehole in the village.

“The borehole brought positive things to my life, to my family and to the community at large,” says Christopher. “We now have clean water to wash our faces, bathe, cook and do many other things.”

In addition, community members receive ongoing education on the importance of sanitation and eye health.

“We are now likely to have a healthy village,” says Christopher. “We thank Operation Eyesight for the great services and development you have brought to this community!”

Plaque at the borehole in Tulonga village.

Well-maintained borehole at Tulonga village.

Christopher Tengwa is happy to have fresh water for his family and livestock.

After being taught the importance of sanitation and eye health, children head to the borehole to wash their hands and faces.

Fresh water brings smiles to all!

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