Seva Canada: A Solution in Sight

Seva Canada is helping Dr. Henry Nkumbe and his colleagues in Madagascar with a children’s eye-care program.

Alcon, the manufacturer of eye-care products, very kindly donated medical supplies. Dr. Nkumbe sent photos of the staff of the hospital’s medical director opening the boxes. It was like Christmas.

Our thanks to Alcon for helping children and adults in Madagascar see.

At Christmas I took my daughter and nieces to see the film Madagascar 2. After watching it, I couldn’t help but think of the kids in Madagascar who can’t see Madagascar and by that I mean not the film but the country. The reason they can’t see their own country (or anything else for that matter) is because they are blind.

One of those children is 8-year-old Andoniaina. She suffers from extreme myopia (nearsightedness) and is unable to see beyond her nose. For those of you who understand these things, her eyesight is OD: -27.0 DS, OS: -23.50 DS.

There were no lenses available in all of Madagascar to help her so Seva Canada got a request to lend a hand. Dr. Larry Louie, an optometrist and Seva donor in Edmonton, sprang into action and he and his colleague made a very special pair of glasses. Representatives from Sherritt Mining, who have a nickel mine in Madagascar, carried the glasses there in time for Christmas.

So Andoniaina has glasses now and can, for the first time in ages, see Madagascar. Amazing.

At Seva Canada we’re often asked if we’ll take used eyeglasses and send them to the developing world. The fact is that it costs a lot to collect, sort, ship and distribute used eyeglasses and, in all of the countries where we work, you can buy inexpensive adult frames.

But the story is different for children’s eyeglasses in Africa. There’s a huge need for a steady supply of infant and children’s frames. Thanks to KLM Cargo and the nice folks at Worldwide Animal Travel, plus some very generous donors, we’ve been able to send multiple shipments of kid’s frames to Tanzania.

Last month I took another 4 huge boxes containing over 1,400 children’s glasses to YVR for shipment to Kilimanjaro. Pascal at Worldwide Animal Travel was happy to help. Seva’s boxes were easier to deal with than their next item for shipment — a real live polar bear being shipped from Edmonton to Luxembourg Zoo. How do you ship a polar bear? In a very large cage with a groom to travel alongside it.

Heather at Seva Canada (www.seva.ca)

The week-long workshop of Childhood Blindness has just finished and the partipants from Cambodia, Nepal, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania have determined ways to work together on research and activities to improve children’s eye care in their countries. It’s been incredibly inspiring for me to attend and I feel that I have a much better knowledge of the issues around childhood cataract and low vision.

Yesterday’s lectures were conducted by a pediatric ophthalmologist from Glasgow, Dr. Tim Lavy, who is working and teaching in Dar es Salam on the coast. It turns out that he’s friends with two of Ted’s (my husband) classmates from Edinburgh. He kept stressing that cataract surgery in adults is very different than in children. His words about cataract surgery in adults were so inspiring that I’ll quote them here: “Cataract surgery in adults is just wonderful. It’s the best operation in the world. ”

This afternoon, Mollie and I are going to the local “blind” school, where about 70% of the kids are not actually blind, but have low vision. I know it will be very hard to witness. As I sit and type this, I can hear children crying from the ward across the courtyard. This week they have been doing 30 oculoplastic surgeries, many of them quite complicated and no doubt very painful. The wards are quite full and all week long there’s been this background sound of crying. Also, outside the surgical ward, there have been anxious patients, some of them Maasai with their striking clothing and dangling silver earrings, waiting for their loved one.

Tomrrow, Mollie and I leave for our two-day safari to Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara.

I’ve just come back from a full day with Patrick’s trachoma research and education team. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so dusty. Nine of us crammed into the KCCO jeep and headed out to Masai villages to examine children’s eyes and take swabs from all the kids aged 1-9 in two village areas.

It was a fantastic and fascinating day. We split into two teams and walked from house to house through dry corn fields and along narrow dusty paths. I had the best job. Not only did I get to sterilize the ophthalmic nurse’s hands, but I was the one who got to give the kids pipi (sweets) after they had their eyes checked and swabbed. Since this involved flipping the eyelids to check for trachoma, some kids weren’t too happy about it.

Most of the kids had English names and there was even a Brenda! (like my sister) One little chap was called Manager, and, as Odilia, the ophthalmic nurse, put it, “If Manager cries, they’ll all cry.” …. And they did. But all parents were happy to have the team come and check the children.

Because these places were seriously off the beaten track, we needed both a guide to help us bounce down the very rocky roads and also the help of village elders to guide us from house to house. It’s a very poor area – unlike what I’ve seen around Moshi or up Mount Kilimanjaro. The Masai like to live close to their cattle and the flies help spread trachoma. But I’m pleased to say that today, after dozens of swabs, we didn’t find a single case in that area, so I assume that the education about face washing, hygiene and latrines is working.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I’ll rejoin the Childhood Blindness Workshop. Monday’s session from 9-5 was brilliant. There are program people and ophthalmologists here from Cambodia, Nepal, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and of course Tanzania.

Yesterday was my first full day in Tanzania. At 9:30 a.m., I set off with a team from Kilimajaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology to conduct what is known as a DRS, or Direct Referral Site, like a screening centre for eye patients.

After an hour bouncing around in a jeep over rough, dusty roads, we reached Rongo District in the lush hills. By the time the team from KCCO arrived at the local hospital to conduct the screening, there were scores of patients, young and old, lined up waiting to have their eye problems addressed.

Over the course of the day, 120 patients were seen and a further 50 at the sub-DRS about 18 km away. Each patient had his or her visual acuity checked using an eye chart hung in the hospital courtyard, then the patient was seen by the Assistant Medical Officer and nurse. It was very moving to see the care and kindness shown to each patient – the reassuring hand on their shoulders, the soft words and the dedication to help them get better.

Those patients who needed cataract surgery were referred to a counselor, who helped explain the process and allay their fears. At the end of the day, 10 patients with mature cataracts were brought back to KCCO for cataract surgery. They will have their operations today and will be driven back to their homes once all the follow-up is complete.

Here’s a film (made later and added in) showing KCCO and the work at the Direct Referral Site:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMYOYSXlpLw]

Today, I’m travelling with Margaret, KCCO’s Gender and Blindness Coordinator to visit more projects in the field. Got to dash!

Heather
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