How was your day?

How was your day?
I spent time today in the eye clinic and the ward supervising my staff.There were a total of 45 admitted patients in the ward ,quet a number ?
I am going home now.
See you,

Thank you for your support British Council for Prevention of blindness

After being in London for a while ,I am back in Blantyre and we are preparing for the next training session of eye health workers which will take place in Zomba on Friday 27th 2009
We are training the second group of health workers to identify blind and severe visual impaired children in Malawi
I will be talking about VISION2020: VISION2020 the Right to Sight global initiative to eliminate blindness by the year 2020 and why its important that children with visual impairment are identified as early as possible This work is being supported by the British council for the Prevention of blindness, (www.bcpb.org), through the London school of Hygiene and Tropical medicine where I am partly based .
The last group of training went well ,I was busy taking pictures of the facilitators and the participants so I am not included in the photos. This was a group of volunteers from Likangala in Zomba.Unfortunatley the intrenet is so slow i cant attach any
In less than 3 weeks time we will be going back to the field to examine the children they have identified .This is the part I love most ,as you get to see the rural areas of Malawi
Well , I enjoy being an eye doctor in rural Malawi

What do you do?

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Forgive but not forget the old bad times

While at the airport (I am still in transit) I have come cross some of my earlier home photos in my laptop dating as back as the 80s and 90s and they really depress me.In those days there were no phones ,computers,TVs et.c or did i not just know that they were there?
I do not want to accept that I was once mainly a goat herder, because my father had 4 cows and 10 goats that he inherited from my grandfather When I was in grade 5 (I was 10 years old then) my father gave me the responsibility to take care of the 4 cows and goats ;and I didn’t like this job. The animals were taken care by my father in the morning and as soon as I got back from school at lunch time I had to take over from him.I knew I didn’t want to live this life for good and I had to get out of the circle and out of that Ezondweni village, in Mtwalo, Mzimba.I loved school and in my small glas thatched house I had this hand written A4 paper (poster) which said “education is the way to the future” and I believed it .thank god I believed it .at that time I used to walk bear footed ,and new a lot of wild fruit in the bush which we were eating as we were helding the bush.I kept on playing to God –please give me the wisdom to become a primary school teacher –I used to love our teacher and he also fond of me as I was good at arithmetic and history.
Look at the picture of me standing while my brother is sitting, this one is from 1983.look at my grandfather and his ground children-we still have the same house. Look at my mum and dad holding my older sister who is now married. I remember my father had to sell one cow at a time for the family to get school fees and by the time I finished secondary school fees all the cows were gone and it was then that I started helping in taking care of the family
There were many other people who were in the same situation but did no get away from that village like me .
Was it because of my own effort that I am where I am today or was it because of the hand of god?.
I do not want to take the credit because I know God knew my destiny and gave me the wisdom to be where I am.
I wish I would pretend I did not go through that life and forget about it, but I can’t.
That is why I believe in those poor blind children I see in Zomba, and other communities, there is a potential that some of them may get out of poverty and be somewhere in future. Maybe an eye surgeon like myself or laywer or enginner .But they had to be inspired to work extremely hard.
We used to drink fresh cows milk straight from the cows tits (breasts) because we believed it had strong cream to make us fat and healthy
And here I am today only drinking low fat milk shake because I am scared of being fat
Are you inspired with my life? Or surprised that I went through that ?.

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Journalism can expose one to the limits

The airport seem busy today as the transit lounges are very full.I still have a few hours before my nxt flight and i am bored . Wish I was a journalist, or atleast a novel writer ,I could have been writing about all these people and the noise they are making.Being a doctor I have become too scientific and all i can think about are facts and not imaginations which are needed for one to write .maybe I should go and study medical journalism; but alas i have been in school all my life!!

Imagine the noise at the airport is destructing me from concentrating ; I am trying to blog.

I am reading on internet about how this 22 year poor old boy from Malawi has become very popular in Malawi and the USA ; infact his blog was the blog of the year in 2009 for Malawi. William Kamkwamba is probably one of the fastest growing popular young person from Malawi .Despite being uneducated and a school drop out ,he built a five-meter windmill out of a broken bicycle, tractor fan blade, shock absorber, and blue gum trees. and was able to power four light bulbs and two radios-what a fantastic job. He is currently in south Africa and is being understudied by Dr. Hartford Mchazime, Ph.D., who has become his mentor. Goggle Williams name and you will believe he is indeed popular.
No wonder he got the award of blog of the year.
I cant spend all my time blogging ; because I need to identify so many blind children out there in Malawi. But somehow I wish I could also be understudied .

William was discovered by journalist who wrote articles and blogged about him and exposed him to the outer world where he was discovered In return he has started his own blog , and talks about his experiences in the USA last year. Young guys like William need to be promoted For older ones like myself we need more support than promotion.

I will discover and expose myself to the outer world, and will chose someone to understudy me.

Don’t you think I am fit to be understudied?
If not why not?

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Wishes for my outreach eye project hospital in Malawi

Its day like today when I am in transit that I find time to blog .My next flight will be in 6 hrs time so I have a bit of time to write about comments I got on my recent blog.

I did not know many people would comment on the upcoming new Zomba hospital;
And I am thinking as I get back to Malawi I should visit the hospital on Friday 27th February and see the progress My worries are on the frequent trips I am making between Blantyre and Zomba especially that I am still using the old pickup which sight savers donated 7 years ago and that its now not in a very good condition.
We are training health workers at Mayaka health centre , near Nasawa training base or Ngwelero Its about one and half hour drive from Zomba and the road is not very good. Since its still in the rainy season I am worried that if it trains that day the muddy road will be very slippery, and we may not reach there .Indeed we are forcing the old Toyota, I would wish to have a relatively newer –less used (or brand new second hand four by four ) which would be a reliable car for the project. Its harder to find people /organisations to donate a whole car at the moment as four by four cars are expensive and with the credit crunch in the USA and UK most well wishers are reluctant to give any assistance at the moment .The priorities of my Government are on Malaria, TB and AIDS, and its unrealistic for me to expect them to give a car for the eye project. Bill Gates has not yet been convinced that blindness in children is worth intervening at an early stage so he is pumping most of his money in Africa into Malaria .Well for some time we will just have to manage with the old car you can see on the picture, but we seriously have to look for the alternatives .The other day I saw a new four by four vehicle belonging to an NGO called “Water Aid”; the vehicle is a Toyota hilux double cabin and its very good for field work I was wondering how I could convince somebody to donate such vehicle for the project in Zomba.

Any idea of well wishers with an old 4 by 4 car needing to be donated ?

Or any idea of someone who may be interested in giving us a project car in future?

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Changes in my career

I used to be a consultant clinical ophthalmologist (eye specialist) but I have now moved on and I am more than that.
You see I am now a public health ophthalmologist , or ophthalmic epidemiologist as some academic friends would like to say. After being tired of being a clinical ophthalmologist who only focuses of treating individual eye patients, in 2005 I went to do a masters public health (MPH) degree at the London school of hygiene and tropical medicine and proceeded in the following year to do an M.Phil My focus now is about the community ,what can we do about the majority of patients in the community who do not present at all in the hospital and how many are there out there and what do they suffer from .The answers to these questions requires innovative research and this is now my major area of focus However I continue doing clinical practice ,and surgical operations because there isn’t anyone who can take over those duties
I am a member of the International society of geographical and epidemiological ophthalmology ,which focuses on public health Ophthalmology .Perhaps this explains why I am everywhere ,not necessary doing clinical practice ,but mixing epidemiology with clinical practice. I am also leading a study in Malawi, so you can see that I fit more in the faculty of community health than in my own faculty of ophthalmology. The truth is that in the whole of sub saran Africa ,even though there are a relatively good number of Ophthalmologists ,there are only a few of us who are interested in public health ophthalmology and as we continue to market ourselves the demand for our services will be bigger in future .
So next time you hear that I am no longer operating on eye patients do not be surprised ,I will have gone fully to my new career –public health ophthalmology

Now you know the difference between public health ophthalmology and clinical ophthalmology .
However to find out more about what we do as public health ophthalmologists’ visit
VISION2020 and International Centre for Eye Health

And to communicate with me on anything or just comment

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New eye hospital in Zomba , Malawi facing severe eye health workers shortages

My specialist medical field is Ophthalmology or eye specialist as other people prefer it to be called .I am one of the few Ophthalmologist practising in Malawi.
We are lucky that we have had strong links with Lions Clubs International- thanks to the efforts of the oldest Malawian Ophthalmologist Professor Moses Chirambo who has being fighting blindness in Malawi since 1972. He is the person who attracted me to join ophthalmology We have as a result of his initiatives more eye hospitals than doctors in Malawi , currently we have three lions eye hospital in Malawi, one in Mzuzu, one in Lilongwe and one in Blantyre where I work. but this is not the end .The construction of the fourth Lions eye hospital in Zomba funded by Lions clubs of Norway has been going on very rapidly ,with the 50 bed hospital expected to be complete by as early as July 2009.But the major challenge is who will be working at the hospital and where will they come from? the Ophthalmologist incharge ,nurses and clinical officers .There is already currently very few eye workers in Malawi .As usual my name has come up to go to Zomba because we are a few of us in Blantyre ,and as you probably know I am tied up with finding blind children in the communities of Zomba in 2009.But I can not be in too many paces at once ,so we need to identify and send some junior doctors for training as eye specialist ,so that they can take over the leadership of eye hospital. There is also need for a lot of nurses and clinical officers and any well wishers who would like to spend sometime working in the eye department in Zomba will be welcome. Once the construction is completed the hospital will be handed over to the Ministry of Health

Are you interested in working in Zomba?

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Great bloggers from Malawi

I was mentioning the other day that I was inspired to start blogging by a Malawian blogger "ndagha" Victor Kaonga ( a journalist currently working at Transworld radio in Lilongwe, Malawi)who has been highlighting a lot of issues about Malawi on Global voices .I would encourage you to visit his blog site if you are interested in knowing more about Malawi.He is a real proffessional ;i only blog on part time basis.

Meanwhile I want to start focussing much on the general health aspects of Malawi , challenges at the medical training college ,College of Medicine in Blantyre ,the frustrations that doctors and nurses face in Malawi , and what the Drs from Malawi are doing when the migrate to the UK. I will in my next write up start with my own classmates : firstly a colleague psychiatrist from Malawi who is based in Kent,UK and works with the NHS and how his life is while in the UK and what he thinks about and says about returning to Malawi where there is no practising psychiatrist at the moment .
Do you think I will be intervening in other people’s personal lives? Should I continue pursuing this subject?

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David Madonna Banda

Well let us accept it ; the most famous person from Malawi is David Banda, the lucky boy that has been adopted by the Madonna Or is David Banda lucky? Just goggle his name and you will know what I am talking about.
Well I can’t resist following the recent comments that are appearing in the daily newspapers in London about the separation of Madonna and the husband and that Madonna is living with her children in the USA while the huby is in UK. David , having come from a broken family (in mchinji, Malawi) apart from having exposure to money ,should ideally have been raised not in another broken up family .Now that Madonna is separated ,should we say David has no father ?For your information, real the father is alive in Malawi and now the adopted father is in UK. Lucky David ,he is attending very expensive school. Whatever opinions you have and whichever angle you want to take it the separation of Madonna with the huby will have an impact on David. But as usual, Malawians have been quiet on this issue ,I am just expressing my opinion as one Malawian. Looking back at the massive poverty that is in Malawi ,and my own experience of poverty ,I would still say David should remain with Madonna in the USA and continue to be the most famous person from Malawi
Has David been caught up in the separation? Is there a way out for David?

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Blogging lessons for Malawians

Blogging lessons for Malawians

So how does one start to blog ? Coz they aren’t many Malawians in this field ; because they do not know to start.
Well I never went through a formal training so I can t have the answers .All I can say is that I taught myself the hard way on the internet ; and I am sure other people can teach it easier to many Malawians .How did it start for me ? I was inpired by a Malawian journalist “Victor Kaonga” who was studying masters in Sweden in 2006 and was writing a lot about Christianity and journalism in Malawi ,and I noted that there were very few blogging articles about health in Malawi .I told myself that since I was a highly qualified person in the field of eye health in Malawi ,I would start by highlighting issues affecting my department in Malawi .And of-course my background and how I used to live that miserable life at Ezondweni , Mtwalo, Mzimba Malawi where my parents are still staying .I goggled on the internet about how to blog and came up with the list of blogging symbols .So then I started and look at where I am three years later .
But many Malawians leaving outside Malawi and within Malawi want to start Blogging but they don’t know how to do it .Is there a simpler way?
In my next blog , I will be highlighting the benefits blogging and I am convinced Malawians are loosing on this one .
If Khumbo Kalua , who came from the remotest of the remote villages in Mzimba , Malawi and had never seen a computer until a few years ago can now freely blog , then yes you can do much better. Ask me I have been there .
And talking about being busy ,my job is really involving –but I still have time to blog –so no excuse .

Are you in IT? Can you help many Malawians start blogging?

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Blogging lessons for Malawians

Blogging lessons for Malawians

So how does one start to blog ? Coz they aren’t many Malawians in this field ; because they do not know to start.
Well I never went through a formal training so I can t have the answers .All I can say is that I taught myself the hard way on the internet ; and I am sure other people can teach it easier to many Malawians .How did it start for me ? I was inpired by a Malawian journalist “Victor Kaonga” who was studying masters in Sweden in 2006 and was writing a lot about Christianity and journalism in Malawi ,and I noted that there were very few blogging articles about health in Malawi .I told myself that since I was a highly qualified person in the field of eye health in Malawi ,I would start by highlighting issues affecting my department in Malawi .And of-course my background and how I used to live that miserable life at Ezondweni , Mtwalo, Mzimba Malawi where my parents are still staying .I goggled on the internet about how to blog and came up with the list of blogging symbols .So then I started and look at where I am three years later .
But many Malawians leaving outside Malawi and within Malawi want to start Blogging but they don’t know how to do it .Is there a simpler way?
In my next blog , I will be highlighting the benefits blogging and I am convinced Malawians are loosing on this one .
If Khumbo Kalua , who came from the remotest of the remote villages in Mzimba , Malawi and had never seen a computer until a few years ago can now freely blog , then yes you can do much better. Ask me I have been there .
And talking about being busy ,my job is really involving –but I still have time to blog –so no excuse .

Are you in IT? Can you help many Malawians start blogging?

Email me!

I am a Resource centre for Malawi

An enquiry from the USA about exchange rates -how much the Malawian “Kwacha” is to the dollar at the moment, an enquiry from a medical a student about where they can go and do an elective in Malawi ,an enquiry from a traveller as to whether Air Malawi flys from Nairobi to Blantyre on Friday ; and a financial request form a poor Nigerian family who cant survive –these are the few of the many things that I get emailed through my blog. It makes me wonder whether there is a website out there where people can get reliable information about Malawi and also for people to know which are the rich people that are ready to donate money .I am just highlighting the problems blind children face in Malawi ; and if anything am the one looking for well wishers who can support the good work we are doing in Malawi by donating money and other things but not me giving the money .Well despite being a specialist medical doctor , I still on less than a dollar per day while serving the community in Malawi.
The work I am doing is not for me to make money , but rather to make a difference in the lives of many blind children who can not even afford to go to school in Malawi .
You IT guys , why can’t you have a “face book” for Malawi where people can check what they need and suggest to those who have the money and are ready to help Malawi channel it through my project .

Meanwhile I will continue answering to all blogger questions related to Malawi and my medical speciality to the best of my ability ; until I am convinced other mechanisms to obtain this information exists.

So continue enjoying the resource centre for free for now (but you are welcome to donate) .

Do you have any questions ,queries ?

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Consultancy can be addictive

For me, helping with research and eye work in other countries had very little to do with money from the start; all I knew is that the trips gave me opportunity to see places I had never been before .I didn’t care how much per diem or consultancy fees I got, as long as I had a good sleep and good food. In return all i needed was to be dedicated to the work I was engaged to do and I needed to compile a comprehensive report at the end of the assignment. So I was asked for my availability for consultancy services in Mozambique, Zanzibar, Tanzania, South Africa ,Malawi and Rwanda I knew I would have good fun in these countries .But the outputs of such travel and work were interesting; big documents detailing the findings of the visits and several training and research curriculums were developed .It was a lot of hard work but in almost all the cases I did perform well. Little did I know that after travelling this much and doing this type of work , one gets addicted and wants to do more .But consultancies are seasonal –sometimes they are there -very wet all the time and sometimes it becomes very dry .So when I did not get asked for any assignment for a period lasting many months ,I noted that I was having a lot of withdrawal symptoms –constant jet lag , sleepless night , fatigue, boredom ,was irritable and had many other things . It took a colleague to diagnose that my being in one place for a long time (not travelling) was resulting in these symptoms and that the only therapy I needed was to get more of these trips .The result is that I embarked on a long term journey of internet searching but to my disappointment there was not much success coming with the searches .I have hence ceased active searching for consultancies (even though I still have the withdrawal symptoms) ; and my only solace is in the communities and villages I am currently visiting in Zomba and Mangochi in Malawi .

But I can do consultancy in any health and education related works-and not only in “eyes” but as long as it involves working with rural disadvantaged communities.

Any ideas of where I can go from here?

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Blantyre Institute for Community ophthalmology (BICO) - a year later

BICO was founded in 2008 with the mission of contributing to the prevention and control of blindness in Malawi and neighboring countries in the Southern part of Africa through conducting practical research, teaching, training, consultancy and advocacy in eye care delivery. The idea to start the institute was conceptualized after realizing that despite nearly 10 years after the launch of VISION2020 : the Right to Sight ; the global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness and the various achievements in many areas of the world; the southern part of Africa has still not made much progress especially in the area of research on effective community eye care s programmes. The centre aims to coordinate research being carried out eye care professionals in Malawi and transfer the best of its expertise and experience to an ever-increasing number of eye care institutes across Southern Africa The centre is strategically located within the University Of Malawi College of Medicine teaching eye hospital, the Lions Sight first eye hospital in Blantyre. The current activities of the institute contributing to eye care in Malawi and other developing countries in Southern Africa can be broadly classified under the following areas: • Capacity building of community eye care health workers • Training Programmes – focusing on community eye care delivery • Research capacity building through conducting practical local research (operational and health services research ) • Publications • Consultative support to hospitals with no expertise in community eye health • Advocacy and contribution to Eye Care Programmes at National and International level through the Government and International NGOs. • Fund raising for eye care service delivery • Coordination of the National Trachoma Research •
Childhood Blindness Research Blantyre Institute for Community Ophthalmology (BICO) contacts Department of Ophthalmology Lions Sight First Eye hospital P.O.Box E180 Post dot net Blantyre Malawi Tel +2651873214/304 Fax +2651873214 Mobile: 08302232/09958176 Email: kkalua @medcol.mw

Is there anyway you feel you can help BICO achieve its ambitions?
Email BICO!