Siliguri Greater Lions Eye Hospital is privileged that it has been a partner of Operation Eyesight since the beginning. We have witnessed a lot of changes and new development in the past 30 years.

Today our hospital has grown into a super-speciality eye care institute and become the largest service provider in North Bengal. We appreciate the immense contributions Operation Eyesight has made to our institute for strengthening systems, human resources, infrastructure, comprehensive community-based eye care, patient satisfactions and overall quality of our service delivery.

Despite our progress, blindness remains a huge challenge in this part of India. However, today as a partner of Operation Eyesight, we are much stronger to take on this challenge.

-Kamalesh Guha

CEO, Greater Lions Eye Hospital, India

Ever since we joined partnership with Operation Eyesight, the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Zone has achieved a lot in the eye care sector. Operation Eyesight’s assistance to MTRH zone has made us the envy of ophthalmic fraternity in Kenya!

We therefore thank Operation Eyesight and hope that our partnership will continue to prosper and provide eye care to the less fortunate in our beloved country.

-Dr. J.W. Odede

Programme Manager, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kenya

My relationship with Operation Eyesight goes back to 2001 when we set up this hospital in a small village in one of the poorest areas of Andhra Pradesh. I can say that without Operation Eyesight’s support the project would never have taken off. The support we have received from Operation Eyesight since then is remarkable and the relationship continues. We are now implementing an ambitious hospital-based community eye health care programme covering a population of 150,000 in 76 villages around the hospital with Operation Eyesight, which we expect to go a long way in making this hospital self sufficient.

I wish you all the best for your future endeavours and hope that we will have a continued successful relationship.

-Isaac Thomas

Project Coordinator, St. Gregorios Balagram Eye Hospital, India

Thank you for being our partner since 2004. Your organization has made us what we are today!  From a mere unit in the department of surgery to a department, and a centre of excellence for eye care in Zambia.

Some of our achievements and successes include human resource development, including primary eye care and ophthalmic nursing training, the enhancement of patient care through equipment and infrastructure improvements, the provision of consumables for cataract surgery, and commencement of a master’s programme in ophthalmology, made possible due to the ground work and foundation to which Operation Eyesight as contributed.

-Dr. Grace Mutati

University Teaching Hospital, Zambia

Keep an eye out for more letters of congratulations in the weeks to come. If you would like to learn more about our history, please click here.

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I wish everyone could have a supportive and caring father like mine. My dad gave the biggest and best hugs; he was a great storyteller and a terrible tease; and he always, always believed I could do anything I set my mind to do. Fathers can be your very best advocates and allies!

Speaking of advocates, let me tell you about another caring father I met in Kenya. Paul Nakach is a day labourer who lives in the town of Kakamega, 100 km southwest of Eldoret.

I met him when he brought his four-year old son, Evans, to one of Operation Eyesight’s partner hospitals, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. (Read more about my visit to the hospital here.)

Paul told me that when Evans was two, he was diagnosed with cancer in his left eye. Paul saved up enough money to make the trip to the hospital, where his son’s eye was removed. A difficult decision, to be sure!

The toddler continued on medication for a few months, but then had to have a second surgery because his eye socket was swollen. Further surgeries followed a few months later.

When I met the father and son, Evans was at the hospital for further assessment. Paul told me that overall, he was happy about his son’s surgeries because the cancer appeared to be gone and Evans’ vision had improved in his remaining eye.

However, since he didn’t have any money, Paul was worried about the necessity of continued surgeries. Even though he wanted to help protect his child’s health and avoid blindness, how could he afford the cost?

Imagine the look of relief on Paul’s face when the doctors assured him that Evans’ surgeries would be paid for with support from Operation Eyesight’s generous donors!

I know it meant a lot to this hardworking father to learn that his son’s vision and overall health would be looked after by others who care. I know my own father would have felt the same, if it were one of his children affected. Dads are like that!

There are people in your life that you appreciate, not only for what they do but just because of who they are. Your parents, your teachers, your closest friends… they almost always have your best interests at heart. This June, why not honour one of those people – a special dad, or a favourite teacher – with a tribute gift from Operation Eyesight?

The post A caring dad can be a child’s best friend appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

When I was at Kitale Eye Unit, I met Bernard Simiyu, a 61-year old local man who had been a community health worker for four years. He regularly walked great distances, covering a large district of about 50 rural homesteads and checking in with families to identify eye injuries, cataracts and refractive error (the need for prescription eyeglasses), among other medical conditions.

“Bernard and our other community health workers help identify patients for us. We hope to get bicycles to help them in their work,” said Dr. Hillary Rono, referring to the large districts the frontline workers canvass on foot.

Rono, the ophthalmologist at the eye unit, told me that Bernard was one of 32 community health workers in the Greater Trans-Nzoia District. The Ministry of Health trains the workers with support from Operation Eyesight and other NGOs.

If patients don’t live too far from the hospital, the frontline workers can literally lead them to the eye unit, or can use their hospital-sponsored mobile phones to call and arrange for a doctor or clinical officer to visit the rural area.

Bernard himself had been blind from cataracts, and was operated on five years earlier at another Operation Eyesight-supported eye unit at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital. His son knew where the Kitale hospital was, and was able to escort him there, so Bernard appreciates the importance of having someone knowledgeable accompany a patient.

He told me, “When you are blind, it’s like being in a hole. You cannot see what’s going on. I was feeling painful when I wasn’t whole, so I decided to help other people to see. Eyes are so important.”

Would you like to help frontline workers like Janice and Bernard? Your gift can help train community health workers in Africa.

The post Frontline workers reach remote patients in Africa (Part 2 of 2) appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

A 74-year old Roman Catholic nun from the Kaiboi convent, 50 km outside Eldoret, Sister Cecilia speaks English very well. She was booked into the hospital’s eye unit for bilateral cataract surgery on her left eye; and although she seemed very calm on the surface, she confided that she was worried about her upcoming surgery that morning. Her eyes, one with a misty blue-grey cataract clearly visible, were apprehensive.

“I was a teacher at the convent for a long time. I taught religious instruction. I do pastoral work these days in my old age, because I can’t see even with my glasses now. I’m hoping for the best with this surgery.”

I saw Sister Cecilia later that day after her operation. Her eye was covered with a bandage and she said it felt sore and swollen, but Dr. Isaac Wanjala assured her that when he removed the coverings in the morning, she should be able to see. He said she should return to the eye unit for a check-up the following month.

The next day, I visited a bandage-free Sister Cecilia again. When I asked her how her vision was, she smiled warmly and shook my hand. “I can see many things now. Even my watch is clear!” she said, holding up her arm with a plain wristwatch on it. “I was afraid, but now I’m all right. I can see again – thank you!”

For only $30, you can give the gift of sight to someone like Sister Cecilia who needs cataract surgery. Visit our Gift Guide to learn how.

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