Thank God for my Mum

Today was a very busy day for me ;am glad its now evening and I am looking forward to my trip tomorrow.
Why was i busy?I have being trying to send this Research article for publication in a peer reviewed journal.Imagine it took me the whole day.
Tomorrow I am going to Portsmouth;to see the harbour ;There is a feery that goes from the port to France-I am not sure whether I want to ride on it.
The trip from London to Port harbour by coach is 4 hours ;i will leave very early in the morning so that i spend the whole day there.I am coming back to London in the evening.

At the momemt i am about to sleep but am admiring the old pictures of my home village back in Mtwalo,Mzimba malawi.
I was there for the unveiling of the tombstone for my late father.
My mum is still looking miserable.
The other women carrying Nsima are smiling
People are happy sitting on the graves and charting not even thinking why they are there.
I had to borrow the red car from a colleague at Ekwendeni Mission hospital.
The grass thatched house (my mums kitchen) reminds me of the healthy organic food that i used to eat before being introduced to the hot dogs ;i feel sorry for her though : she's never been out of that village -maybe i need to do something for that community ? Resources are tight here in the West .

Of being a medical student

Gone were the good days


The photo on the right is a picture of myself :the younger Dr while still a medical student at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Australia in the early 90's.I was at the University of Adelaide medical school in South Australia from 1990 -1995
I was on a UNDP scholarship (through Malawi Government).
Look at how much I have changed today on this right picture taken when i was 37.

Ironically I am still working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital;but this time in Blantyre Malawi Africa.I was 21 then and keen ;staying at flat 40/133 Anzac Highway
I am over 40 ,with a lovely daughter and wife , but staying in a small village location in Blantyre (Baluti) not known by many ;but am still kicking.Time does fly.

World “Fight against blindness” Cup

Determining the World champions in fighting blindness can be very challenging, but indeed even in the field of blindness , people like Drogba do exists : I am representing Malawi and hope we can get through teams like Zambia ,Zimbabwe ,Mozambique ,and Rwanda quickly so that we start so that we start on focusing on difficulty ones like Ghana, Ivory coast , Nigeria and the Germans . Having done some eye work in the countries I have mentioned and seen how strong they are, I am confident Malawi has a bigger chance of winning .
Everyone including myself has been focusing so much on the world cup that reported for work for the month of June to July has been difficulty .For most , that means cancellation of field work ,and also cancellations of eye theatres to see the major games. Not fair for the poor patients
Having lost a fortune through gambling and betting on the England team; I have no choice but to get back to my roots : fighting against blindness and hoping to get in the semi finals of the “world fight against blindness” semi finals .A wise man warned me to stick to what I am familiar with so that everyone can appreciate. I am proud to report that out of blogs I have written; this one on Malawian Eye Dr becomes health minister has attracted most comments for a number of reasons ;well he has been one the few eye doctors in Sub-Saharan Africa who has left a name of the world map of blindness; and that for retirement he is currently the minister of Health for Malawi . I thank you for your encouraging comments ; and I shall continue writing about blindness in Malawi and other areas.
For politics ,,as Prof Chirambo used to say “Keep out of politcs:it is a dirtly game" and adding on the word “ listen to what I say and not what I do” , I am not amazed that he betrayed himself and become a politican and am keeping my fingers crossed .I have revisited the library to find more photos of him receiving the world cup on behalf many blind persons he has been fighting for .
Currently there are more than 10,000 Malawians who are blind from Cataract and could see again if a simple cataract operation would be performed on them .Most of these I believe will be supporting me
Which side are you on?
What do you want to say?
Email me!

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?
Any comment?
Email me!

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 ?
Email BICO!

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
What do you say?

Email me!

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 ?
Any ideas ?

What do you say?

Email me!