Do you enjoy listening to the radio? News programs, talk shows, music, weather reports, traffic updates – they’re all pleasurable and useful, but I suspect we take often take radio’s availability for granted.

Yet for a 32-year old Zambian named Ides Habeenzu, listening to the radio actually helped restore her eyesight!

Ides lives with her husband and three children in a grass-thatched house in Nambae village, located in Kapiri Mposhi district, Zambia. She has Type 1 diabetes, which has caused her a number of health problems. And, until quite recently, she was blind from bilateral cataracts.

“Life was bad,” she says frankly. “I stopped doing anything for myself. I had to wait for people to do things for me.”

Ides’ blindness came on gradually, over about three years. “My family thought that there was black magic involved. I felt sad, hopeless, just crying most of the time. I thought that I would die, and there was no future for me.”

Unable to work, Ides used to sit at home. Radio helped pass the time. And one day, it helped change her life!

She heard a radio public health program conducted by a doctor from University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city. Although the doctor was conducting outreach clinics not specific to eye health, Ides’ family brought her to see him. In turn, he referred Ides to the UTH Eye Clinic, refurbished in 2012 by Operation Eyesight’s generous donors.

Ides’ relatives helped her pay for transportation from the village to Lusaka, about a six-hour drive. There, she had cataract surgery and received counselling to better control her diabetes.

And her operation was a success! “I am able to see again. I feel like a lady now,” says Ides happily. She enjoys farming and cooking for herself and her family again, too. “Being cooked for is not good,” she says frankly. “Now the future is bright. Thank you very much. And thank you to the donors who helped me!”

Read how advice from a similar public health radio broadcast also helped a blind elderly couple in another part of rural Zambia.

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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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We certainly celebrated World Sight Day with style last week… by opening a beautiful new centre for eye health at University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia.

“My government wishes to express its sincere gratitude to Operation Eyesight, who put in a huge capital-intensive investment to construct this centre,” Zambia’s Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Joseph Kasonde, told a crowd of supporters at the opening event. He added, “This eye centre of excellence will certainly raise the profile of eye health services delivery at UTH and in the country as a whole.”

The original UTH eye clinic was a small and dilapidated heritage building, which needed almost total reconstruction to ensure it met clinical quality standards. Today’s bright and beautiful Ophthalmic Centre will offer ophthalmology specialities for treating pediatrics, vitreo-retinal, anterior segment, and glaucoma, as well as provide community eye health and research. It will train professionals (including ophthalmologists) in various eye health areas, and will provide a research and resource centre for all eye health services in the country.

Not only will this facility increase staff training, improve patient screening and treatment, and realize improved surgical outcomes and productivity, there is also another reason to celebrate its grand opening: it’s a wonderful example of what’s possible when we collaborate with generous donors and governments.

The Ophthalmic Centre is the culmination of eight years of hard work and strong partnerships between Operation Eyesight, Nava Bharat Ventures Limited of Hyderabad, India, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Government of Zambia’s Ministry of Health, and University Teaching Hospital. As our Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Boateng Wiafe, told me, “This was a classic example of true partnership. Every partner brought something to the table to get the work done.”

All of us at Operation Eyesight congratulate and acknowledge the partners and donors who made the construction of the new Ophthalmic Centre possible. We were proud to have been part of this project.

We especially would like to thank Delphin Kinkese, our Zambian country manager, and Dr. Grace Mutati, chief ophthalmologist of University Teaching Hospital, for overseeing the project and ensuring the opening was a huge success.
I know the centre will provide Zambians a great resource within the full continuum of eye care services for many years to come!

Operation Eyesight has been working to prevent avoidable blindness in Zambia since 1985, and has been supporting University Teaching Hospital since 2005. Where else do we have hospital programs? Find out here.

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