And Family of course

Mum, Tapiwa and Yewo


But for all other academic staff: blindness in children, cataract, Primary health care, Ophthalmologists, Blantyre, Malawi , blah, blah, blah  check our website

www.bicomalawi.org

you will be overwhelmed with what we do.

 

Finally we made it to Nsialuzu Resource Centre (Blind school) in Ntcheu

Today we are visiting Ntcheu district, in particular Nsialudzu resource centre where there are 37 children with Low Vision/Blind.I am here to familiarise myself with the place as thanks to Lions of Netherlands I will be visiting this place often.

Our objectives are twofold : To donate mattresses, mosquito nets and books that Blantyre Institute for community OphthalmologyBICO  solicited through well wishers such as Dr Vicki Mak  from New Zealand, Insia from UK,  Robray mattres in Blantyre and Lions Club of Limbe ; and secondly: to assess the condition of children in the school for the blind(resource centre). Of course the main contributor was for this trip Vicki Mak.

There are 37 blind/low vision children here and their condition is pathetic as most of them had had never had an eye examination. We are here to assess their condition and see what best can be done to improve their learning. And we have found a 11 year old boy with bilateral cataract in school registered as blind (because he is) and yet he could have come to the eye unit in Blantyre and be operated on ; and could see properly. Imagine in 2012 ; waiting for 11 years before you can go to a hospital to be helped with a condition that once is born with. Very sad indeed . But this boy will now be referred to hospital where hopefully he will regain his sight. I wonder how many more there are out there?

A full report will come on the Blantyre Institute for community OphthalmologyBICO website and there will be a video that has captured the whole event.

Together we can do more.

Do you want to donate to BICO?

Contact me at  : director@bicomalawi.org

Email me!

Thank you Rotarians of Limbe

We finally did it.

It was nice seeing so many people from Mulanje regain their Sight after we did Cataract surgeries at Mulanje district hospital on 20^th and 21^st April 2012.

Frank Mbewe my right hand man did most of the work and I am very proud of him.

Bravo to the team that went to Mulanje.

Rotarians, please support more of these eye camps.

Cataract remains the common cause of blindness in MALAWI with over 20,000 blind from the disease.

An operation to remove cataract takes less than 15 minutes (in the experience hands) so these people should not suffer unnecessarily.

What is needed is to support the team to be able to go and perform surgeries. In 2011 Malawi had a zero deficit budget; which meant zero community eye activities.

Blantyre Institute for community Ophthalmology BICO   my unit couldnt  help.

 

Should more Malawians be supporting cataract surgeries from their pockets?

Comment at : director@bicomalawi.org

Email me!

Abu Dhabi

World congress of Ophthalmology (WOC) is being held at Abu Dhabi and I am privileged to be there.

I am staying at the Yas Island Centro Rotana Hotel.

Hotel s are expensive-cheapest around $300 per night.

We had our first meeting today at 13^th February at Fairmont Hotel. We were discussing about the issue of cataract in sub-Saharan Africa.

Cataract is the commonest cause of blindness in adults and children. But it can be treated by a simple eye operation that last less than 20 minutes.

Do you want to know more about how cataract causes blindness?

Email me at director@bicomalawi.org

Email me!

Another success story from training community health workers in rural Malawi in identifying blind children

This young girl in the picture has cataract, and has been identified by one of the community health workers that we trained in Mangochi district. The girl was struggling in school but did not know what problem she was suffering. Through the study being conducted by support from British Council for prevention of Blindness (BCPB), our team has trained over 400 dedicated community eye health workers.
As a thank you for the good work we have given the health worker the t-shirt that he is wearing.
We have also advised the girl to come to Lions Sight First Eye hospital, Blantyre for eye surgery .We do refund the transport cost for the girl and the guardian if they get to Blantyre –through funds donated by Future Vision Ministries (FVM) in Canada. But we are running low on the funds and will not continue doing the good work unless other well wisher comes along .We appreciate any donation to BICO (Blantyre Institute for Community Ophthalmology) and will acknowledge you.BICO relies 100% on charity donations.

Do you want to help ? or just comment?
Email me!

OVER 120 BLIND PEOPLE HAVE THEIR EYE SIGHT RESTORED IN ZOMBA AND MACHINGA, MALAWI

A short meeting between Dr Khumbo Kalua , Senior eye specialist from Lions Sight First Eye hospital , Blantyre ,Malawi and Mr Kashinath Chatruvedi , MD for First Merchant Bank (FMB),Blantyre has resulted in over 120 blind people from areas surrounding Zomba and Machinga district having their sight restored through eye operations performed at Zomba central hospital from the 14-18th September 2009 .
Since the worsening of the global final crisis earlier this year , a Malawi Ministry of Health partner who was heavily involved in supporting eye care in the South East Zone ( Mulanje ,Phalombe, Zomba ,Machinga and Mangochi) has pulled out unexpectedly early this year and as a result there had been no surgical sight restoring eye camps conducted in this zone the whole of the year. Reports that many blind people were suffering in this zone prompted Dr Kalua to approach the MD for FMB, and find out if he would help to solicit funds to support eye operations. Supporting Eye care has not attracted good funding from Ministry of Health because of priority in other life threatened diseases like Malaria and HIV/AIDS. However those who are blind can more than often be helped with very little resources compaired to other diseases .
Dr Kalua had approached the MD as an appeal from the private to support the public (private- public partnership) and reading the newspaper that the private sponsoring things like Golf and other sports ,and the MD agreed to talk Rotary Club of Limbe; who inturn agreed to support eye operation in Zomba and Machinga districts .A generous donation to cover logistics involving the identification of patients ,transportation to and from hospital ,and transportation of staff from Blantyre was solicited by the mD from the Rotary club .
Patients with cataract were mobilized from Machinga and Zomba , picked from their homes, had eye operations done at Zomba Central hospital and were ferried back to their homes . Operations were done by a team of two dedicated eye specialist doctors from Lions Sight first eye hospital, Blantyre.
It was all happiness and smiles the next day when patients who had been blind for sometime (up to 5 years) were able to regain their sight and see again.The staff were thanked for the good work that is being done and these good stories were reported in the “Nation” newspapers.
Cataract is the commonest eye condition that causes blindness in Malawi and a painless operation of less than 15 can result to total reversal of blindness with patients completely regaining their sight.
Currently over 20,0000 of all adult aged 50 and above in Malawi are blind or have severely visual impairment from Cataract and are waiting for cataract surgery . Supporting one cataract operation to restore sight cost less than USD 50 per patient and up to 20 patients can be done per day by one surgeon.

All well wishers who would like to come forward to support the eye operations in Malawi should contact Dr Khumbo Kalua at LIONS EYE HOSPITAL, BLANTYRE!

There are currently only 8 eye specialists based in Malawi , and training to be an eye specialists takes a minimum of 10 years of medical school (6 years of undergraduate and 4 years of specialization).

Patients with eye problems can go directly to any one of the tertiary hospital in Malawi in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu and can be seen there.
Do you want to comment?
Email me!

Blind Children have no one to speak for them in Malawi but they also need treatment

You often read or hear about certain people in Malawi who have a particular disease that needs treatment outside the country and that they need finances to seek medical treatment otherwise they will die.

Do you know that there are at least blind children 1000 blind children in Malawi who also need financial assistance to get to effective treatment within Malawi?

I have decided to post these pictures of blind children from Malawi to highlight the need that is there.

Unfortunately these children have no one to speak or write for them and are doomed to remain blind for life. I have failed them, you have failed them and our society has failed them by not speaking or doing something about them.

The commonest treatable cause of blindness in children in Malawi is cataract (ng’ala); which can occur as a result of many things such as a mother having an infection during pregnancy; or being inherited (genes) from parents.

Children are either born blind or develop the cataract earlier in their lives.

If these children are not operated within the first few years of life (before 10 years of age), their brain switches off the light stimulus and these children will never regain sight even if they are operated later in life.

Most parents who have children blind from cataract do not know that this condition can be treated; as a result they stay within their communities or present at the hospital when it is very late.
Operations can be done in Malawi; but the surgical supplies and other requirements needed are a bit expensive so there is limitation as to how many can be helped. On top of operation itself, children need glasses which are usually expensive. They also need to stay in hospital for a few weeks.

A child who is blind will most likely not end up in school; remain uneducated, poor and continue the circle of poverty.
Unfortunately there is no Voice to speak for these children; so they get neglected and life goes own in Malawi and elsewhere.

My conscious tells me I should write more about blind children and try to engage people to do more.
I have already started researching ways of how to get blind children with cataract early from their villages to hospital in Blantyre but I have not sorted out all the logistics yet.

You can help. Email me!
I will tell you how

More than 10,000 Blind people in Malawi

Fellow malawians -those who are outside the country and the ones in Malawi who can still access email,Do you Know that there are over 10,000 blind people in Malawi and that the majority of these can be cured by a simple 15 minute operation done by an eye Dr like me.
Cataract (Ng'ala,Nkhungu) is the commonest cause of blindness in Malawi (and is everywhere and not in Chikwawa and Nsanje only).The majority of the blind are old people (over 50 years old).These people are completely blind;and the unfortunate part is a child quits school to take care of them.Cataract is not painful and develops so gradual such that the sufferers do not come for help at the hospital.Also the children of these parents/grandparents (like you and me) are usually outside the country or in town and we do not care about these people.Infact most people in Malawi believe it is a time for these people to die.
This need not be so.
Cataract is a white opacity on the eye (lens)-see picture 1 and occurs as part of the normal ageing process (like grey hair,imvi,chituvu,mbuha).Fortunately with technology this can be removed within 15 minutes at the hospital and the sight restored.
I believe all of you reading this article should have in Malawi a relative who is blind from Cataract.
I illustrate to you a case of an old man that I operated on who ended regaining his sight after being blind for nearly 5 years.
1.The first picture is of the patient.You can see the white in both of his eyes and that he is completely blind.He was blind like this for 5 years and a young grand child was taking care of him.
2.The second picture is of my team and I operating on him.
3.The third picture is of him immediately after the operation eating his food (nsima)(you can see that both his eyes are covered with bandage).
4.The 4th picture is of him after i opened the bandages the next day (day 2) after surgery .You can see that the white thing is not there.He is mute because he is initially shocked that he can see.
5.The 5th picture is a nice one.You see now he is finally smilling and happy to see again after 5 years.He even looks younger.

You can help in making sure that the 10,000 blind people in malawi do not stay blind.Ask me how.
Change a life of somebody.You will see how satisfying it can be.

We treat;but God Heals.

Did you know that Children can also go blind from Cataract(Ng'ala?).Read my next article.
Email me for comments!