Our regional director for Africa, Ghanaian ophthalmologist Dr. Boateng Wiafe, has worked closely with the ministries of health in Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda and Ghana for many years. He and his staff have discovered that such collaboration within existing health systems encourages local leaders to manage their own affairs, while creating models that can be replicated in other regions.

“Operation Eyesight empowers Africans to take care of Africans,” he says.

In her 2009 book, The Challenge for Africa: A New Vision, the late Kenyan activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai wrote, “The challenge for [Africa’s] leaders, both governmental and nongovernmental, is to acknowledge and then channel Africans’ capabilities and energies into effective action for development.”

We believe international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) that choose to support and build on resident expertise can create long-term sustainable solutions that respect and steward the talents and abilities inherent in Africans. Developing countries understand their social and economic challenges and usually have the expertise to solve their own problems. They may only lack sufficient human and financial resources, and that’s where we can help.

Operation Eyesight has had notable success using these strategies. We invite other INGOs to contact us to learn more about our approach to sustainable development.

We have many great stories to share with you about the difference our donors have made in Africa and India… check out our success stories today!

The post Options are available to help developing African countries (Part 2 of 2) appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

These are not helpless people. They have many of the tools they need to improve their own systems, except financial and human resources.

With this in mind, Operation Eyesight has committed to working collaboratively with local governments and communities for the long-term health and well-being of the countries and their citizens.

Over our organization’s history, we have chosen to embody the concept of the Declaration of Alma-Ata. This international declaration, signed in 1978, emphasizes the importance of primary health care, which the World Health Organization categorizes as “geared toward self-reliance and self-determination.”

An excerpt from the declaration reads, “The people have the right and duty to participate individually and collectively in the planning and implementation of their health care…. Governments have a responsibility for the health of their people which can be fulfilled only by the provision of adequate health and social measures.”

Rather than sending expatriate medical staff to perform eye surgeries in the four African countries – Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and Rwanda – where we work, Operation Eyesight made a conscious decision to collaborate with local governments and citizens at community, regional and national levels.

We chose to not simply fund cataract surgeries; instead, we manage a comprehensive range of all levels of eye care, from training community workers to building or refurbishing hospital infrastructure.

We collaborate with local public health, water and sanitation departments and with ministries of health. The outcome? Supported, expanded and improved health systems. Such partnerships encourage the ownership and participation of communities, regions and countries that is crucial to sustainable development.

Return next week to learn about our goal for our work in Africa, and its long-reaching implications. Read more in our Winter newsletter about how we work “narrower and deeper” in these countries.

The post Options are available to help developing African countries (Part 1 of 2) appeared first on Operation Eyesight.