Together For Sudan

Registered UK Charity No 1075852

Eye Care Outreach in Kadugli

Together for Sudan’s eye care project project.

Introduction

Together for Sudan organized a free eye clinic in Kadugli in September 2006. There is a considerable need to provide free eye care to impoverished people who live in remote areas outside Kadugli town.

Subsequently a second outreach has become necessary due to the fact that the first was conducted during the rainy season where people can only travel by tractor outside Kadugli because of the deep mud.

This current outreach was conducted in Kadugli from 11th-24th December 2006 and was carried out in Kadugli hospital with the cooperation of the South Kordofan Ministry of Health, by a team of five medical personnel from Khartoum.

Objectives

- To examine the eyes of up to 700 patients.

- To provide treatment to women, children and men suffering from eye diseases.

- To provide reading glasses and ordinary glasses

- To provide up to 400 surgeries, mainly for cataract and strictly using Intra Ocular Lens

The duration of the outreach was scheduled to be ten days. Due to delays in the delivery of surgical equipment the outreach was extended for an extra three days to give enough time for post surgery care.


		A refractionist from the outreach with Peter Simon Wani the TFS Nuba Mountains Field Coordinator.

Activities

TFS Kadugli personnel generated wide publicity for the outreach, advertising through the local mass media. Before the arrival of the team of doctors they also made early arrangements for approval from Ministry of Health and the manager of the Kadugli hospital.

The team consisted of four members (one consultant ophthalmologist, one ophthalmologist under training (who was replaced by another doctor when the period of the outreach was extended for more three days), one theatre attendant and one refractionist).

The team were provided with the necessary equipment, medicines, consumables and eye glasses, to enable them to perform examinations, treatments and surgeries. Most of the surgical equipment was provided by Dr. Nabila Radi a consultant ophthalmologist who runs the TFS Eye Care outreach in Khartoum. Others were donated from Al Waledeen Eye Care Hospital.

				The number of patients attending the outreach was 2300 and despite a lack of medicines and medical personnel to support outpatients the doctors were able to see nearly all but one hundred of them. During this TFS outreach around 200 eye operations were provided nearly all of them cataract operations.

				A patent waits for relatives to take him home after eye surgery.

Official Support

The Ministry of Health assisted the team by providing some medical instruments, and released some staff to assist in organizing the crowded people in the clinic and the operating room. The Minister of health visited the team twice during the outreach which raised the morale of both doctors and patients. Eight staff from Kadugli Hospital and a representative from the Ministry of health facilitated the work of the team and did the follow up of patients after the team left for Khartoum.

Local theatre assistants from Kadugli hospital

Local theatre assistants participated in the eye care outreach, during which 193 free surgeries were provided.

End Results

The number of reading glasses distributed by the refractionist was 96 out of 290 reading glasses required, also 408 sun glasses were distributed to the patients operated on, to others with ulcers (eye ulcers) and serious eye infections. There are 89 adjusted lenses of different sizes of right and left eyes required and 14 reading glasses of big sizes e.g. + 10 needed for those patients who had been operated some years ago.

The majority of the patients have been treated by more than two types of drugs.

The Eye Care outreach has generated wide spread publicity in the Nuba Mountains, as a result the health secretary in Kauda has asked for Together for Sudan to conduct an Eye Care outreach in Kauda in South Kadugli and Julud in the Western part of Kadugli.

With YOUR help this could happen!


	Women wait on the grounds of Kadugli hospital to be examined by the ophthalmologist. A large majority of the more than 2000 people that attended the outreach had never been examined by an ophthalmologist.

What you can do: Donations in any amount are much appreciated. But please consider whether you are able to support work such as this – and contribute to maintaining peace in Sudan – by providing regular donations. Regular donations allow us to plan ahead and work more effectively.

£15 ($26.19) will buy a child a pair of prescription glasses and £50 ($87.30) will pay for cataract surgery and follow up for her grandmother.

to make an online donation via the 'Give Now' website for the "TOGETHER FOR SUDAN" charity.