Malawian Post Graduate student eye doctor shines in Berlin, Germany: June2010

Malawian Post Graduate student eye doctor shines in Berlin, Germany: June2010
Dr Tamara Chirambo Nyaka , a student doctor specializing in ophthalmology at college of medicine in Blantyre ,Malawi has been awarded by Germany society of Ophthalmologists (DOG) Euro 5,000 in Berlin ,Germany for presenting the best student research topic in ophthalmology .
Dr Chirambo , a student of Dr Kalua ; is one of the most promising and will be one of the first ophthalmologist doctors to graduate from University of Malawi ,College of Medicine in 2010.
The world ophthalmological congress (WOC) in Berlin attracted over 1,200 speakers from all over the world and was attended by over 17,000 participants from 2nd -9th June 2010.The next International congress will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in 2012 and then Tokyo, Japan in 2014.
In his remarks during a brief visit to the Malawian embassy in Berlin; Professor Isaac Lamba who is the ambassador for Malawi in Germany congratulated Dr Chirambo for putting Malawi on the map.
Dr Khumbo Kalua , an epidemiology and clinical research lecturer of Dr Chirambo established the Blantyre institute for community Ophthalmology (BICO) to advance Eye Research in Malawi and is proud to be associated with the success of one of his students .
Who said Malawians had no brains?
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Blantyre Institute for community Ophthalmology (BICO) update 2010

Remember 2 years ago when Blantyre Institute for Community Ophthalmology (BICO) was founded in 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? Remember the reason for starting the institute? To accelerate eye research in southern part of Africa inline with needs of VISION2020 : the Right to Sight ; the global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness.
The centre aims to coordinate research being carried out by 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 •
Blantyre Institute for Community Ophthalmology (BICO) contacts : Department of Ophthalmology ,Lions Sight First Eye hospital P.O.Box E180 Post dot net Blantyre Malawi .Email: kkalua @medcol.mw
BICO has already started making huge impact in regards to eye research in the region : in 2008 the trachoma survey was done in Malawi under leadership of BICO ; in 2009 BICO coordinated the trachoma survey in Rwanda; and continued with the childhood blindness survey in Blantyre ,Malawi .Later in 2009 BICO coordinated the Rapid Assessment of Avoidable blindness survey in Malawi .Recently BICO has helped solicit project funds for lions club of Limbe to support blind and visual impaired children in Phalombe, Malawi
There are several researches coming up under BICO in 2010.Indeed BICO is achieving its dream.
You can help BICO achieve more of its ambitions by just making a comment on where to get resources ?
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Happy 4th birthday Tapiwa my Daughter

Tapiwa my daughter is turning 4 on Wednesday 2nd June, and praise the almighty lord for that. Remember her story, born at 7 months premature, weighing like a loaf of bread (<1 Kg) and in intensive care (neonatal ) unit for 3 months Tapiwa at Birth
Well see where she is today!!!!.Who said miracles don’t happen? And see her ; no wonder mum (middle in a hut) can afford to smile ! Does Tapiwa look like she is from Ezondweni,Mtwalo, Mzimba,Malawi?

Unfortunately I cannot be with her on that day; because I am on my way from London to Berlin, Germany to attend World Opthalmological congress Berlin World Congress of ophthalmology from 2nd -9th June. While there I intend to visit an old friend and classmate Martin Mkandawire, a resident of Dresden for many years and also catch up with Chihana , who is at the Malawi embassy in Berlin. Here in London everyone is asking me about the sentencing of the Malawian gay lovers to 14 years improvement with hard labour BBC news Malawian gays and I do not know what to say : expect that I am not gay.
Back to her birthday, obviously my daughter is upset that dad cannot be there on her special day which only happens once a year; and she has requested that her birthday party should therefore happen at the school with her friends. So imagine both mum and me will not be celebrating with her , a sign of growing up and being independent.
The problem with me is that it’s always work with blind persons, work and work; and always on the road. I will be giving two lecturers about blindness in Malawi; and the human resource crisis that we have at present. That is what being an eye doctor and researcher is all about.

Happy Birthday Tapiwa.

Would I have cancelled this trip for my daughter? Or done something different
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Lions club of Perugia Italy and Lions of Limbe to help blind and visually impaired children in Phalombe, Malawi , thanks to VISION2020

In the days of so many scam and crooked emails, imagine someone you have not met in person or known before emails you and promises that they will give you USD 10,000 if you get back to them. Most of us including myself will disregard such an email or send it to trash and I almost did that a year ago; thank god I did not delete the email and this is why as I am blogging now USD 10,000 has been transferred to the Lions Club of Limbe in Malawi to help the blind and visually impaired children.
You see Lion Marco Terzetti of Perugia Lions club in Italy had by chance came across my blog site in December 2008 ; and was fascinated with articles on VISION2020 -the global initiative to fight blindness and what was being done in Malawi especially in regard to blind and visually impaired children .At that time I was blogging frequently about the project I was launching in Southern Malawi to help blind children ; and the challenges we were facing in Malawi .Honestly speaking I wasn’t blogging to ask for money from anyone .So when he emailed back with a few words saying “email me back to collect a cheque for your project in Malawi” I said to myself here we go with another of those Nigerian emails that claim that thousands of dollars have been left in bank in Abuja and that I should help the widow and get a 50% share ( and I do get a lot of these emails lately).
Putting my trust in God, I replied to Marco asking how this was going to be possible; after all what was his interest as he didn’t know me.
The rest is history (email me to get what followed after that); but I am proud to announce that through my blog site , the Lions Club of Limbe Malawi have benefited from Lions of Perugia ,Italy with a grant of USD10,000 to support a project in Phalombe dealing with blind and visually impaired children.
I came up with the idea that the project should take place in Phalombe. Lions Clubs Lions clubs have been a very strong supporting partner for VISION2020 ; and the first phase of their projects concentrated on infrastructure development –which for Malawi resulted in Lions club building 4 Lions eye hospitals and donating them to Government .I work at the biggest Lions Sight first eye hospital in Malawi , which is located at Queen Elizabeth in Blantyre .The second phase of Lions Project concentrated on supporting surgeries to reverse blindness from Trachoma ; and countries like Ethiopia have massively benefited from the Lions Fund.
Ironically the VISION2020 head offices are in London at the International Centre for Eye Health where I am based when I am in London. This should not come as a surprise that I am a strong advocate of VISION2020.
I am happy for now that through this VISION2020 initiative and the partnership with Lions club, the poor blind and severely visually impaired children from Phalombe, Malawi will be helped. Meanwhile I continue exploring other avenues of how to promote VISION2020 in Malawi. Sorry i forgot , I am a Lion member myself even though I am not in the picture with Lions of Limbe members.But you can see me among the children in my red polo t-shirt.Project is for 2010-2011; but you can come in after!!

Want to help ?
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Unrealistic expectations

Well, it’s a million dollar question!! How do you tell this young blind child that when he grows up he will not be a soldier or a doctor as he wants .At-least not in Malawi and not a child from this rural Phalombe area . You see my mission to Phalombe was to visit the blind and visually impaired children at Nazombe primary school , in Chirunga, Phalombe which is situated near the Malawi Mozambican border .I have found the 15 blind children ; all in school and with a lot of aspirations ; two in particular want to become come a doctor and a soldier respectively. They are both learning at the school in Braille .For medicine I suppose you can go a long way with Braille ; but there is a lot of skills needed that it would be impractical for a blind child in Malawi to continue with the course .for the military , there is a lot of hard exercises and heavy duty work ; which in my opinion a blind child cannot cope up with .But here I am as a mentor , trying to encourage these children not to quit school , so how do I tell them you will never be a doctor or soldier ; that would demolise the children .
I am aware that now we talk of inclusive education; where the environment is modified to suit the blind child’s needs.I have seen this in UK , mainly at one blind school that we visited in Scotland ; and a budget of millions of pounds is needed every year to support such children .Malawi is too poor, so policy makers would not push for the move to put billions of kwacha just for the education of the few blind children .Its a moral dilemma , and I am not sure which side to follow .
Well, the truth is that all children need a decent education(whether blind or not) and that at the moment only 20% of blind children are attending school .
Do you want to suggest what can be the solution?
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Volcano in Iceland

I was caught up in the European airline mess that happened a few weeks ago as a result of the volcano in Iceland .I could not proceed with my trip.

I happened to be affected by the volcano from 17th April -23rd April ; and I lost about USD 1000 as a result (ask me how privately!!!) . Well the volcano didnt happen in Malawi so I obviously wasnt there . I had initially planned to blog about it ; and finding myself being a victim of the air aviation industry , I could not afford to find time to blog anymore .I have after a few days finally reached my final destination ,trying to recover from the financial loss and once I settle , I will write a blog about how the volcano in Iceland affected me.
Were you also travelling during that time ? did you get affected ?

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Blogging from Kilimanjaro, Moshi Tanzania

I have come to attend the gender and blindness meeting at Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology; and I have a chance to catch up with old friends in Tanzania .I am staying at Bristol cottages in Moshi.
We are here to discuss why less women access eye services all over the world ; and I have been asked to present findings as to whether it is true that girls also with blinding conditions access services less that boys . And yes it is true ; blind girls access less services than boys and something needs to be done to help more girls access services .
This meeting has drawn experts from all over the world (about 22 in total); we have friends from Seva foundation USA and Canada ;UK; Nepal ; Guatemala; India ; Egypt; Kenya ,South Africa Malawi and of-course the host Tanzania .
We have mapped out some strategies that we need to follow in the next 18-24 months to ensure that we move forward in addressing gender inequities in eye health.
With a team of experts from IAPB in attendance (Abi and Daniel); I believe we have a good platform for moving our agenda forward.
Moshi has been very hot this time; I gues the global warming has finally got us .Imagine snow is still bng seen covering top of Kilimanjaro mountain despite the great hit .
Today I have met an old good friend Joseph Banzi who we stayed together in UK for a year while doing our public health postgraduate degree in 2005.He is now a big boss working with Pathfinder ; an NGO that deals with HIV/AIDS. Well one day I wil be a big fish too; I gues time is the greatest predictor. We have visited the house that he is building in Moshi .
Abi from IAPB would like me to write a blog for the website; but I seem to be dry on what to write.
Well, I am still here for a few more days; maybe I will come up with something.
Have you been to Kilimanjaro?
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