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Blog: July 2024

A Long Haul

Hello lovely people:   I am aware that this is being written rather later than I would have wanted……  It’s been a funny old year I can tell you!

Our cataract work continues.  We have now done more than 1,309 eyes; we are chuffed with this.  Also, since the last time I wrote to you we have done a lot of eye health screenings, treating many, many patients with simple inexpensive medication, handing out advice and eye health education, and of course selecting those who require cataract surgery.  We have been told that this really is THE most cost-effective way of using our funds.  It certainly pleases the ophthalmic staff to be able to enable their countrymen to take better care of the amazing asset that is good eyesight.  Preventing children making themselves short sighted in particular!!

It is however a fact that many people present with glaucoma which will end in blindness.  It can be held at bay with relatively inexpensive medication costing less than 200 dalasi a month.  The problem is that such funds are simply not available to the elderly who are often economically inactive AND, in areas where money for rice and oil is scarce, and families are large.

In my last blog I pasted some photos of the tools that we had had donated by Tool Aid Ringwood.  These spent months in our garage.  Also, you may remember the pieces of ophthalmic equipment decorating my dining room……  You may also remember that I told you we had two visual field analysers.  Alasana Touray our main man at Kanifing was over the moon when he heard about these.  Well, then we were offered a third!!!  This one is less sophisticated but more robust and capable of being taken up country.  We are so grateful.

All the equipment must be checked over before it goes to The Gambia and Gary Evan our lovely ophthalmic equipment magician was asked to visit.  However, this was not straightforward, and for many reasons, we had to wait.

Meantime we had been given a huge amount of defunct NHS bits and pieces.  I say this because that is exactly what it was.  Lynn Hadley who is a retired ophthalmic nurse and friend, approached us telling us that she had been offered quite a bit of ‘stuff’ from a retired GP and somewhere else.

We knew we were sending the tools and other equipment to The Gambia and so we thought that we could use this other ‘stuff’.  Lynn came with her husband to kindly deliver the goods.  Our eyes nearly popped when we realised just how much ‘stuff’ there was!!!!

They had a vehicle that may be described as a double cab pickup.  That is; it was ginormous!!  It was full of boxes, stuffed with ‘stuff’.  When we brought them into the house, they filled our hallway.  Obviously, there was not much room in our dining room. 

When we plucked up the courage to open them, we were almost horrified.  Out of date surgical gloves, boxes and boxes of them, different sizes.  Different coatings (??).  Loads and loads of boxes of face masks obviously left over from the Covid outbreak, again out of date or almost so.  Surgical instruments in individual bags marked ‘one use’ AND out of date.  Surgical cloths full of other eye goggling surgical steel instruments.   Honestly there was just so much. A lot of stethoscopes, and things to examine lady’s parts.   I could go on. 

A baby monitor, breathing tubes, plastic pots, some books and eye health care leaflets.

Also, a great deal of medical drops for various ailments.  It was heartbreaking not to be able to use them.

All out of date!

To be fair there was some very useful ophthalmic bits and pieces too, in particular two tonometers, a Perkins and a Reichert.

What to do?

We took advice and were told to destroy the medication. 

We wracked our brains; it is expensive to send things to The Gambia.   Then inspiration struck.  We thought about Alhagie Camara our long-time friend from our Friends of The Gambia charity days.  He is a Gambian who has live in the UK for 30 years practising as a nurse in Wolverhampton.   We always knew that his dream was to return home, and ‘give back’ to his beloved country.  He dreamed of developing a Nursing College there which followed the strict protocols of UK hospital practice.  He told us once how he had cried when he saw, in a main Gambian hospital a ward orderly using the same blood sampling instrument on more than one patient!

Last year, after a long, long, and sometimes frustrating plod, his Nursing College was up and running.  It is called the Sami Institute of Nursing and Health Sciences, look it up.

 Sami Institiute | Nursing Institiute in the Gambia (samiinstitute.co.uk)

Their motto is Transforming Passion into Professionalism.  We asked his advice and of course it became obvious that much of our huge haul would be very useful equipment for nurse training.  Phew!!   He assured us none of it would be used on real patients, but would be magnificent teaching aids.   He is a professional!

It took us about two weeks to go through the boxes and sort them.  Sadly some bits had to be scrapped.  I do wonder what our refuse collectors made of it all!

Meanwhile, last year, when in The Gambia, I agreed to get some eye patches made to help the eye hospital deal with lazy eye in children.  I have various friends who are clever with a needle!  One of these friends told me that her sewing group also made pretty dresses and shorts for poor kids overseas, AND would I like some?  I thought about the little family me and Jim support, and their extended family way up country.  Yes, I said, that would be lovely!

When I went to pick up my booty I was staggered to be given four large boxes full of newly made clothing.  As well as the promised eye patches.

I could barely tell Jim what was in my car!  

Again, I had to summon up the courage to begin to inspect my haul. 

Oh my word……  They were simply beautifully made dresses and shorts….. they had been separated into age groups from 1 to 16.  A handmade draw string bag held three items plus either knickers or pants – in some cases lovely bright T shirts, all newly purchased ……., What a simply beautiful thought!  The label on each bag said “Made with Love by the Sew and Sews”.   Wow!!

BUT what to do with so much. Both me and Jim are aware that in the wrong hands these items could be sold - we have been visiting The Gambia for a long, long time. 

Because of our experience at Friends of The Gambia we know about the GOVI School for the Blind, and we also know of a great little charity run by Jackie Church called The Glove Project Home :: The GLOVE Project which helps the very, very poorest families in rural villages.  They pay for surgery and provide prosthetics for child amputees.   

These beautiful clothes, except those few I sent a sent to ‘our family’ will be shared between these two charities.  This will be overseen by a trusted friend who will meet the consignment when it arrives on 27th July (fingers crossed).  I know that both of these registered organisations will share the clothes amongst the most deserving children and their families.  I am hoping for some photographs.

Once all of this was sorted into labelled boxes, my dining room became defunct as a useful room.  Our dining table piled high and relegated to standing unused next to the Welsh dresser.

Gary Evans managed to get over up to check our goods, and with him three more slit lamps appeared!!!  Ugh!!, I mean oh joy.

We eventually packed everything ready for transporting to our fabulous crate makers P & D Casemaking.Ltd. of Poole. 

We hoped to get it out of the house before we took a holiday visiting family in Ireland.  BUT no!    Suffice it to say it was still looking at us on our return.  So we were relegated to once again eating at the kitchen table!!

Getting the goods transported to P & D was also fraught with difficulties.  The sheer bulk of the equipment in its packaging provided a real dilemma for us.  It was heavy AND it was fragile.  We are both now in our seventies.   We have family and friends but fitting in with the schedule of the packers and our ‘man power’ was tricky. 

I have to say I have rarely been so stressed…..  I had been living with some of that equipment for over 18 months. We know that both Alasana at the eye hospital and our friend Alhagie at the Sami Institute were really excited about getting their hands on all of this wonderfully useful bounty.  Jim’s buddy Tim, finally came up trumps and got it down to Poole for us.

Once packed, the crates had to be taken to the shippers. Once again, Tim stepped up and agreed to take them to Peacehaven: a round trip of 240 miles. He wouldn’t even take money for diesel.

When we were called by P & D to collect our crates we were once again staggered by the fact of the size of it all.  Three packing cases supplied FREE OF CHARGE! 

When I saw the size of the crates my heart sank.

As we waited for the gates to open up, one of the (unfunny) case makers grimaced when he spotted our transport and shook his head sadly…..   I nearly cried.  It was quite an old flat bed truck but it looked fine….. however in my fragile state I imagined the very worst!

All was well though; it went onto the pick-up, albeit piled up…..  P & D also loaned Tim straps to hold it securely for its journey.   I actually took photos of Tim’s lorry springs…..   I was so worried.

Jim, Tim and our gifts to The Gambia courtesy of all of the gift donors and helpers .

THANK YOU

THE WHOLE GANG

The goods are now scheduled to arrive on the 31st July (today).  We will have photographs, I am sure.  We have sent instructions to ensure that every single thing that was sent, will be utilised for the benefit of our friends in The Gambia.

I am sorry I have spent so much time on explaining all of this to you, but I feel justified in doing so to give you an idea of how kind and thoughtful our supporters are, and to what lengths we will go to support this lovely country. 

Violet 31st July 2024

Blog: 20th January 2024

Much To Report

Happy New Year to all of you wonderful supporters and friends.  My, but it is cold today…. As I grow older, I swear my blood is thinning.  When I think we were in The Gambia this time last year in all that lovely warmth….

Well, we have had another really good year and have now done over 1,200 cataract operations.  We are both over the moon about this.  To make a difference to one person feels lovely, but honestly… to 1,200 people, to their families and, in some cases, to their whole communities, is a real high.

I have to say the team in The Gambia have been amazing, working so hard and being so patient when we are unclear about what is happening when or why a particular thing is so costly.  Jim works so hard protecting our funds!

So, I left you last time with news of Camp 19:  a rather spectacular one from our point of view.  Today I will report on FIVE more, all successful and full of life changing stories.

Camp 20, an Urban camp from April to July 2023

We have been really touched and excited about this initiative which began after one of our supporters Mariama, a trained ophthalmologist, reported back that, in the main eye hospital, the SZRECC, individuals were turning up regularly for cataract surgery and being turned away (regularly) for lack of funds to pay the small sum required for the lens replacement and necessary medication to ensure the operation was a success. Each time with less and less sight. The funds we put aside for this are husbanded VERY carefully and used only when Alasana Touray is convinced of the poverty of that person. Camp 20 produced several heart-rending stories one of a lame man who bought in his blind wife.

Camp 21 at Essau

This ran from18th July until 23rd August 2023, it took so long because it is the rainy season and travel is difficult. Problems were compounded by the need of farmers to work their fields at this time of year.  It followed on from the community screening that we funded earlier in the year, in March.  Seventy cataract operations were carried out.

Camp 22 was held in Bansang

This came out of the community screening carried out in Niamina Katamina in The Central River Region in May with the involvement of an enthusiastic Gambian based charity called Gui Mam. They examined 270 individuals and used drugs provided by CAC for the simple eye complaints that are rife in that area.  At the ensuing Cataract Camp, twenty-nine cataract operations were carried out. Four were treated for pterygium, which is a triangular shaped growth on the eye caused most often by the sun and by dust.  It is easily removed by a trained operator.

Camp 23, another Urban camp

Twenty ops. were carried out over a period of four months from August to October. One particularly stood out for me.  A lady called Nyima who is 90 and lives in the Upper River Region. She has only one daughter who had moved away to an area in the Kombos.  Because Nyima became blind in both eyes, she had to go to live with her daughter. it is a duty in The Gambia for children to care for their parents. Nyima was forced to leave her subsistence farm because she could no longer see to work.  She was advised to go the SZRECC, where she was lucky to find Alasana and our small fund.  Here is a photo of her.  She is very, very happy with her sight restored.

We do not know if she will stay with her daughter of go back to her farm, one thing though, she is no longer disabled by blindness.

Here is a photo of her.  She is very, very happy to have her sight restored……….. and so is the lady on the right.

Camp 24 urban camp

These twenty operations were carried out over the period between October and December 2023.   As we are often told, it is only the very poorest and those in the direst need who can access this small fund. 

One story that took our imagination here is of a young girl, Fatoumatta (so many girls share that name; it is used most often for the first-born female).  She is 14 years old; she had travelled with her sister from Nyaloi village in URR, some 300kms away from Kanifing.  She had developed a cataract due to a trauma to the eye.  They were told it was possible to operate but, when the cashiers came to them for payment, they both became very distressed.  They simply had no money.  Apparently, the nurse on shift felt very sorry for them and contacted Alasana who had already gone home. He arranged to pay with CAC funds for the operation.

Above is a picture of her, just after her operation…. and the day after!   This makes my heart swell!

In other news

A major problem in The Gambia is always the lack of basics…. tools for example.  The kind used by the technician at the SZRECC.  We have once before sent quite a selection of preloved tools; they have all been used but many of them were nearly new.  

They were donated to us by Tool Aid Ringwood, a bunch of amazing guys based in Ringwood who collect, repair and refurbish tools and make them fit to send to less developed countries. They are mostly hand tools collected over a lifetime by people with a practical bent.  Jim collected a load recently and they will be packed with other items we are sending.  There was so many very, very useful things….. we are so grateful.

We were also most fortunate to have been given some impressive ophthalmic equipment.

First from Patrick Kinahan, a retired consultant ophthalmologist who was based in Bangor……we got a slit lamp and some other equipment which has been refurbished and is ready to go now. 

More recently a lady called Estelle Evans rang us to ask if we were interested in two redundant, Field of Vision Analysers. Estelle is an orthoptist based in Gloucester.

I now know that these are the big machines that when you visit the optician you stare into it one eye at a time and press a buzzer when you see a light.  We checked to ensure they would be useful and Alasana practically bit off our hands.  The have had to wait because of the logistics of first getting them to us all the way from Gloucestershire and then to having them checked courtesy of our wonderful, skilful and accommodating friend Gary Evans of EyeTech Optical.

Estelle was determined that the machines go to a place they would be appreciated.  She really has been so patient and now they have ‘pride of place’ in my dining room!!  Temporarily…… soon to be shipped off to The Gambia.

All medical equipment is very expensive and quite beyond the range of CAC’s resources. These donations are worth thousands of pounds and are highly valued by the NEHP.  Once they arrive in The Gambia, they do not languish unused but are despatched to where they are needed as soon as they arrive at the SZRECC.

and Finally…..

Finally, our personal news.  I have had both of my cataracts done courtesy of the NHS.  Two operations six weeks apart with spectacular results.  I can now recommence my bird watching which had become problematic over the last few years.  It is amazing how my sight dimmed and lost detail without my real knowledge……  I am chuffed!

After the first operation I simply could not believe that each eye saw colours differently …….

I was astonished that a roll neck jumper I had worn for very many years was NOT green but actually grey.

Jim is also now also having his done, though he is having to wait for his second eye because of a minor (and rather annoying) infection in the first.   He will be clear in another four weeks and then can have the other eye done.

Having the operation and being able to see clearly and drive comfortably has really underlined my and Jim’s resolve to do as much as we can while we can for those blighted by unnecessary blindness.

Violet Phillips 20th January 2024

Camp 19

A Mega Camp at Soma

We were able to fund this camp due to the generous donation made by the Kitchen Table Charities Trust (KTCT).

Oh My…….. What an experience!  We have just received the Formal Report for the cataract camp (23/02/2023).  A total of 82 cataract operations were performed.  We saw fifty operations on our first day, which was Saturday 4th February.  We were told that at least thirty more eyes were going to be done on the Sunday; indeed we saw the patients coming in with their invitation slips.

So thank you Kitchen Table Charities Trust for your generosity.

This is me with Sarjo Kanyi, the Programme Manager of the National Eye Programme, with our camp banner.

We arrived at Soma after a three plus hour drive.  It was quite hot and very dusty.  We were immediately ushered into a large ward containing quite a number of beds and some mattresses on the floor.  Each bed housing up to three patients sitting ready, marked for surgery and waiting patiently for their turn to be gowned up.  I have to say that, when we walked into the room, I was moved to tears.

The knowledge that WE, that is you, me and Jim had made this happen one way or another was quite something.  I am proud of my kids and grandchildren but to achieve enough to get a wonderful charity like the KTCT on board felt like a real win.  SO humbling.

Next we were invited into the operating theatre…….

Four surgeons were working in rotation at three operating tables;  this enabled them to rest and be able to supervise and train the youngest surgeon, as is good practice.  Really impressive stuff.

It was nearly lunch time and I walked out into the hospital grounds to see a great deal going on.  Many young women with children of all ages were sitting chatting under the veranda, many with their relatives wearing their eye patches following surgery.  The launderess was hanging out hand washed drapes which are put over the patient’s face during the operation……….  Following the launder they are put into the autoclave ready to use again.

One of the nurses was helping an orderly to cook lunch for everyone on site.  The rice is cooked with many ground spices and savoury stock cubes.  Even by itself its tastes good.  The added meat and vegetable are glazed and cooked on a fire.  There was a standpipe for water, people were lining up, filling plastic bottles.  Animals, goats, sheep, some horses and many dogs were wondering around. Those recovering from their operations and who could not go home were resting out of the sunshine or in the shade of the many mango trees in the grounds.

The little lad above was sent to present me with the lovely beads he is holding.  They were offered to me by one of the women accompanying one of the cataract patients.  I was very honoured to accept them and attached them to the bag I was carrying. 

On Sunday morning, when we arrived from our digs, we were amazed to see very many more patients lining up.  Many had papers with them and handwritten numbers.  Each of them was being given the pre-operative check.  Some turned up uninvited but not unwelcomed, we understood that they had heard about the free cataract service following their prayers at the mosque where it was publicised!!

Then came the great reveal……….    I was invited in to watch the eye pads coming off.  It was chaotic in oh so many ways.  In a tiny room next to the operating theatre, the medic had to take off the patch, clean the area and instruct each patient how to use the medication.

‘Patience’ DID NOT describe them.  The scramble to the door was instant.  Anxious people wanting to see if the ‘magic’ had worked, busy people who had loved ones waiting and desperate ones who were relying on getting back their independence…..  the noise and frenzy was intense.  I took very many photographs but none do justice to the intensity of it all…..  Eventually some semblance of order was restored.  I had to get out of the room, it was stifling.  I did see this guy though,  who shouted gleefully, “I can see you……..   and you!!”

Outside I was greeted by smiliing grateful people…… oh so many.  I cannot describe what a fraud I felt!

Below are some photos of some of those who wanted to be photographed,  wearing their new ‘sunnies’ courtesy of CAC and YOU!

It was overwhelming.  I have left my favourite bit until last.  Fatoumatta, who was diagnosed as bi-laterally blind i.e. blind in both eyes, came up to us, she wanted to speak to us and with the help of our lovely nurse friend Sally, the one who worked all weekend, did nursing duty, cooking and serving and translating for us, oh and incidentally had five children.   She said words to the effect of “look at my dress, see the colours in it.  I haven’t seen it before…….  I am so happy that if you want, I will dance for you”.     I had tears!

My heart is full of thanks for every single penny we receive.  Me and Jim both I feel very, very privileged to be in a position to be able to help make such a fantastic difference to individuals and their communities through your kindness.

Here she is:  My pin up girl for 2023

Camp 18

More cataract operations at the SZRECC

Urban Camp 18

Well, we have had a really busy time!  First I will tell you a bit about our latest ‘Urban Camp’  No 18  held at Kanifing.  The report is just about to be put up onto our website.

Again 20 eyes were done.  I have noticed that a high percentage of the recipients are female…….

I wondered about this, perhaps females outlive the males or was there something else?

I spoke to Alasana about it and he said it was because often a woman outlives her husband, and if she was bought into the family compound on marriage, when her husband dies, she is no longer really welcome.  She may well find herself alone and must fend for herself away from what she has become used to.  This effect is amplified if she is not able to ‘contribute’ in any way to the compound.

He says that some of these ‘old’ ladies return again and again out of desperation, however if they have no money there will be no treatment.  Our urban initiative is working a treat for these people.

We are delighted to see the success of the operations and the vast improvement eyesight can make to the lives of those women, in fact, to all of those concerned.

Camp 14: The missing link

Cataract operations at the SZRECC

Here we are just three weeks away from Christmas and oh my, but it has got cold, really cold.  It makes me long for the sunshine and think with some pleasure of our forthcoming holiday in The Gambia in the New Year.  There we hope to witness an eye camp provided by a very special funding charity called The Kitchen Table Trust founded by John Humphrys the Mastermind question master and highly respected broadcaster.  More about that next time!

Today I want to tell you more about our ‘Urban Camps’.  Initiated you may remember by one of our trusty supporters, Mariama, who works in ophthalmics AND who is a native Gambian now living in the UK.

Alasana Touray our very dedicated and amazing lead at the SZRECC manages the budget for this initiative.

When Mariama visited family in The Gambia, she gave some of her time to the eye hospital and met our team there.  She supported some of their work and came back with a rather bold (and for us surprising) suggestion.  It was during the height of Covid, and a period when, the main industry in The Gambia, tourism was simply not happening.  She reported that she saw very many extremely poor Gambians being turned away from the SZRECC because of lack of cash to pay to restore their eyesight.  She told us many of them were really, desperate, in that they were unaccompanied and effectively blind, relying on begging from other poor people, or not eating, and sleeping on the streets.  Many suffering metal health issues and/or physical disabilities.  She was shocked and moved to tell us about it.

I think I have explained before that if you have cash in The Gambia you can pay to have a cataract operation, it costs around 1200 Dalasi.  The reason it cost us (quite a bit) more is because we do it away from the main base, we often pay for food for the patient and their guide, sometimes for fares to get the patient back and forth.  Always for the fuel for transport of the team.  The team are paid a salary by the Government, so it is their job, but very often they work over weekends and into the night for us, in their own time.  They too are dedicated to reducing avoidable blindness in The Gambia.  They also enlist volunteers from villager.  I am so full of admiration for them…….. honestly, I am!

Anyway, we have run with this idea.  This blog is about the twenty patients, done in two batches, the first in June, July and August and the second in September and October.  You see something like just about one patient a week!  We know that Alasana struggles with his conscience over his selection of patients for this.

Muhammed he had travelled from Mandinari Village, he is 53 years old. He is an amputee, caused by diabetes. He is delighted to be able to see well enough now to be able to work again.

Below is Fatou, she is 63 years old recent widow – just a few weeks,  and a subsistence farmer from Kitty Village, she is extremely poor.  She had mature cataract in both eyes and could see very little.  She can now go back to her fields to enable her to be able to work to eat.

Above is Abdou.  Bought to the hospital by his mother.  Abdou has had severe mental health difficulties.  During one bout he "knocked himself in the eyes" causing damage that resulted in Cataracts.  Alasana told us that Abdou's mother, was so grateful for the free operation for her son,  that she cried.

We are so grateful to YOU our supporters to be able to report these happy stories.

We wish you a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

Violet and Jim x

Camps 15 & 16:

Cataract Camps at Brikama Ba and Basse

Blog October 2022 -   Camps 15 and 16

NB these camps are slightly out of sequence, held up because of the extended rainy season so Camp 14 will be a further Urban Camp to be blogged about later. 

We are into October now and the evenings are drawing in, but at least the rain has come and my grass is showing signs of life.  It has been really dry here in the UK, but our friends in The Gambia have had a really difficult rainy season.  Huge amounts of flooding and all the complications and misery that that brings, not least of which to our brilliant cataract teams trying to get up country to serve the poorest rural poor.

In my last blog I told you we were confident that our screening programme was producing huge benefits, not least of which to the very, very poorest Gambians who are doubly disadvantaged by geography and by poverty.  Eye health is not high on an agenda where infant and maternal care is so patchy, to say the least in this area of the Central River Region.  This screening provided us with these next two outsized cataract camps!

Camp 15 at Brikama Ba was run by Ebrima Jadama.

He with his team selected seventy five individuals for cataract operations and performed those operations over an period of a nearly a month, beginning in the middle of July, going into August.  You can read the formal report of the camp on the website. Camp 15.

It is notable that the dreadful weather did complicate the process somewhat, travel was difficult and some of those selected for surgery did not turn up because breaks in the weather meant they could       attend to their crops, vital to their survival.  These appointment were not wasted and they completed seventy-five operations as scheduled.

Picture 1 some of the waiting patients and guides sitting in front of our banner in ordinary clothes

Picture 2 patients lined up and marked ready for their operations 

Picture 3 here: After surgery.

You will note that our patients are photographed in front of the banners that we had made.   Why?

One of the things that is often said to us is “how do you know that what “they say” is done, is really done?”. 

The answer to this is as follows:

a.  We have a fully costed and signed contract for each camp,

b.  We (that is Jim) has emphasised to our team there, how transparency in all that we do is vital to ensuring a continuous donation stream.  Extra care is taken to make sure that we know where every penny we send there has gone thus accounted for.

c.  We get a full formal report from the POMA of the activity of the camp. Listing patients’ names ages, eye state prior to surgery and following surgery - usually with accompanying photographs of various qualities.  You can read all or any of them on the website under ‘Formal Reports’.

d.  Now we have developed these banners.  They enable an observer to identify the site of the camp and the date/s on which it was carried out. When we get a large donation from a funding charity, we can give the camp their name as well as a number.  We have been blessed with several large donations for which we are SO grateful.  We look forward to naming our next camp for the Castellan African Trust (CAT) who I reported in the last blog did a sponsored tandem ride for us.     So now you know!

Camp 16 which was managed by Ebrima Dukureh the POMA for Basse Cataract Camp. 

This time the camp consisted of eighty patients!  You may remember they screened 1,175 individuals during May and June, incidentally, treating five hundred and fourteen cases of conjunctivitis!!!  Simply staggering.

Right to left: Patients lining up for their final assessment prior to surgery.

Ebrimah Dukureh operating on one of the patients at Basse.

This photo showing the hard cataract of this young patient.

This is the home of one of Ebrima's patients Lamin Camara.  It was devastated by the rainstorms that prevented him attending his follow up appointments AND which made this such a long camp for the team.

Ebrima wrote:

This is Lamin sitting in his compound narrating his ordeal as his reasons for not coming for his follow up visit.  The second eye to be operated on was inflamed.   I gave him eye drops and some money to use as his fare to the clinic for a further review.

We are so thrilled with the outcomes of these two mega camps.  We are really proud of our hardworking and resourceful teams getting the job done in spite of adverse weather conditions.  It is also touching to note that Ebrima Dukureh gave Lamin (above) money from his own pocket to enable him to return to the hospital to be checked.  NOT the first time we have seen such kindness!!

I hope you enjoyed this read and feel that the trust you have put in us and the support you give us is worthwhile.

Violet

Camp 13: A Screening in Basse and an Urban camp in Knifing

Posted by Violet Phillips, 25th July 2022

Here I am again.  We have been very active if not very ‘’vocal” over the last few months.  We have been receiving all kinds of donations from the most unexpected as well as our regular expected sources. 

We are so humbled and grateful to be able to continue this vital work, in spite of all of the chaos around us all and the many, many calls on all of our resources.

When we returned home from our Gambian trip, we were delighted to invite to our home a very distinguished, academic author and retired eye surgeon called John Sandford Smith.  Just google him!! 

On the left, John Sandford Smith and Jim meeting and on the right examples of his excellent publications

John was introduced to us some time ago and was instrumental in helping Sight Savers set up the eye health infrastructure in The Gambia and other African countries.  His book (one of several on the topic) entitled Eye Diseases in Hot Climates is in its 5th edition!  He has donated some of his books to be used by the eye surgeons in The Gambia.  He is a lovely, gentle, unassuming, caring chap, a pleasure to be with.

It was John that enabled us to procure the 50 solar powered, pocket ophthalmoscopes free of charge that we were able to issue to nearly all of the staff at the eye hospital and satellite outposts.  They were delighted.

Now I am pleased to tell you about some very useful optical equipment donated to us by the daughter of an optician who retired some years ago, following his death.  She contacted us via our website earlier in the year to ask if the kit would be of use to CAC, given that it was very well used.  We asked our Gambian team who said it would be very useful.  She kindly sent it to us, we it had it tested and sent it on.

Our benefactress was totally delighted when we sent her a photograph of some of the equipment being used up in Soma.  We are very grateful to her.

Now, you might remember that I told you how we had decided that offering up country ‘eye health screenings’ was paying dividends and we have continued that with a further screening in Bansang, Central River Region (a huge area!).

It was carried out by Ebrima Jadama, the area POMA.  As is usual now, our eye surgeon and his team take this opportunity to treat simple eye problems, educate individuals on eye care, identify serious eye conditons and of course select individuals ready for cataract surgery.

He examined 231 individuals and now has 75 people on his operating list; we are discussing costs as I write this.

During May and into June another screening was carried out.  This time in Basse.  Ebrima Dukareh is the POMA there.  He has worked tirelessly covering many, many villages. ones he has not been able to visit before.  He has examined 1175 people, yes honestly! 

514 were treated for conjunctivitis.  It is really rife with the sun, the grit, the lack of understanding about how it spreads and of course lack of readily available running water.  Do look at the list he provided us with, which may be found in the ‘formal report’ part of the website.  Others were treated for various minor eye problems, some advised to go to the main eye hospital in Knifing and he has identified 80 cataract patients.

Ebrima will operate on some in the hospital there and the rest at one of the villages in a suitable building.  The logistics of all of this does take some planning and we are so grateful for his and his team’s huge efforts to get this right.

Camp 13 

We have also continued with the third of our Urban camps, the only cataract camp I can report on here.

Obviously it took place at the SZREEC in Kanifing.  Alasana Touray our surgeon there has taken personal control over the administration of the funds for this initiative.  If you have time to read his ‘formal report’ it will bring tears to your eyes.

As is our protocol, before sending more funding to The Gambia we demand that we get a full and detailed report about the patients already treated.  This takes time, effort and dedication, to say nothing of the difficulties with IT and the intermittent internet in The Gambia.  I simply cannot praise Alasana enough for his care in selecting and detailed reports  writing; this on top of all of his other duties.

The report covers two sets of ten patients.

The first batch in February and March.  The second completed in early June.  Each patient carefully selected from a large number of really, really, needy urban poor.

Let’s face it if you and your family cannot scrape enough to pay for the eye surgery that will transform your life you simply must be VERY poor or you would not become so blind that you could be judged HM.  This means you can only detect Hand Movements in front of your face!

This lady is called Aram, she is 70 years old, she lives in Tuba Niamina.  She is cataract blind and also deaf; she lives by begging.  Over the period of these two sessions Aram had both of her eyes operated on.

Alasana told us a tragic tale of a very young woman who had walked from near the Senegal border with a six month old child who was diagnosed with bilateral congenital cataracts.  Operating on a child can only be done by surgeons more medically qualified than Alasana.  With the help of our funds, he was able to overcome all of these difficulties.  Sadly they were not able to help the child.  Apparently, she had “no good reflex” to indicate a functional retina, so they did not go ahead.  Therefore, she will remain completely blind.                                    He was very sad but as I said to him, we all must be gratified that at least we gave the child this chance of sight. He was delighted to tell us though, that the child’s mother had had a successful cataract operation.

This is 24 year old Abdoulie. He had an ‘eye trauma’ some years ago he could only see hand movements.  The day after his op on his right eye he could see 36 yards up the road!! 

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!

I have not been told if he will be offered to have his other eye done, but it is often the case that one well-functioning eye seems to be enough to be able to live a decent life.

 My final bit of news is about another Gambian charity who approached us to say they wanted to try to collect enough money for a cataract camp by two of their members cycling from Epsom in Surrey to Starcross in Devon on a TANDEM in aid of CAC!

The two intrepid cyclists, Audrey and Dave Bull are two of the trustees of The Castellan African Trust. www.castellanafricantrust.co.uk  

Dave cycles regularly on tandems, but usually with a visually impaired partner when he works for another charity, based in Morden in Surrey.  Audrey was less enthusiastic, not being used to such a long journey!  They are wonderful people.

They took it on, in spite of some really big hills en route, Dorset is like that, and some seriously hot weather.  We are really proud of them and the effort they put into this.  Dave and Audrey began this mammoth ride on the 8th of June.  They passed close to Wimborne so we had the pleasure of meeting up for dinner

Dave and Audrey sent us this photograph on the right on 14th June after travelling 235 miles.  BRILLIANT EFFORT, we shall look forward to receiving the trusts’ final total of sponsorship.

 A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU.

Camp 10 Second urban camp at the Eye Hospital in Kanifing, Camp 11 at Bansang and Camp 12 at Brikama Ba

By Violet Phillips, Late January 2022

Well……… Goodbye to another Covid blighted  year and good riddance I say!

For CAC it’s been rather a glorious and successful year.  My last blog was camp 9 our ‘urban camp’ of just ten eyes, it seems that this is acceptable to many of you, so we have to continued with this initiative!  Thank you for the feedback.

You can find details of this second urban camp (camp 10) in the Report section of the website if it interests you.  Our surgeon used the money for ten more cataract operations and he (we) also paid for desperately needed glasses for four children.  All of these kids are badly myopic, apparently caused, he told us, by them rubbing their eyes during bouts of conjunctivitis, clearly not understanding the damage they are doing themselves.  Each of these children are progressing really well, at school but are terribly hindered by their short-sightedness.  Here are some photos.

This small initiative showed us just how expensive glasses are when the children have complex eye problems.  I am not sure we will pursue this, we paid not only for the glasses but in two cases the fares for the children and their guardian’s long journey,  from the North Bank to Kanifing.

During October, flush with funds from a few big charities, and the lovely money that you send us, we were confident in arranging another ‘super camp’.  First an eye health screening survey followed by the necessary (depending on priorities) cataract camps. This time based in Bansang in the Central River Region.  Three camps were planned;  only two have taken place so far.

The Screening report is available on our website.  294 patients were screened and 175 offered cataract operations, many were given advice and basic medication.  This beautiful photograph of the Dombong village children all lined up their eye examinations makes me smile

On the January 7th, me and Jim travelled to The Gambia to witness the second part of this ‘super camp’.  It was up-river in Bansang at BrikamaBa, we hoped to gain more insight into the processes, see and take some photos of the camp and then have a few days bird watching.  We were very excited!

However…… five days into our holiday, the day before we were due to leave to go up country, Covid struck!  Jim had a runny nose, a cough and felt whoozy.

We tested and he was positive.  So: No trip!  

We were really gutted.  We could not, in all conscience, travel all day with others in a car, be near poor Gambians who may well have not been vaccinated at all, AND we did not have any idea about how the Covid might progress.

The long and short of it was that we isolated in our apartment.I was given my own broom and told to put all dirty linen and towels out onto the balcony.We managed with the help of our Englishapartment neighbours, some take aways and masked walks along the beach.

The camp at Brikama Ba went ahead and the team sent us lots of pictures.  Above a photo of just some of the very many arrivals. The photos below show patients all masked for surgery and with eyes covered post surgery.

A total of 50 patients were operated on, the youngest aged 28 the oldest 85.

The surgeon Ebrima Jadama, who was really disappointed we were unable to attend,  took so much care to get photographs of all patients………  Really…… all of them!

Ebrima included these photographs below, which to be honest I find rather uncomfortable to look at.  But, I want to include them because all of these people wanted to be able to thank you all.  

They will never meet you; most are illiterate and are unable to speak English.  They need to thank you for restoring their sight; for enabling them to regain their independence, their dignity and to take a more a productive role in their families and communities.

Allowing them to express their thanks is gracious.

Cataract Camp 9:

SZRECC, Kanifing, November 2021

By Violet Phillips, November 2021

Firstly some excellent news!

We have got a brilliant new recruit, Mariama Mendy, a Gambian living in the UK since she was a girl and now qualified as an optometrist working in London.  She contacted us via the website some months ago.  We have met up with her. She is young, enthusiastic and lively. She wanted to volunteer to help us, to help her fellow Gambians ‘to give back’, as she said.

Recently she was able to help us and to bring us first-hand news of The Gambia in these difficult times.  When she told us she was going to visit family in August with her father, we arranged for her to visit the Sheikh Zayed Regional Eye Care Centre (SZRECC) at Kanifing to meet Alasana, his boss Sarjo Kanyi, and some of the team there.  

The Sheikh Zayed Regional Eye Care Centre (SZRECC) in the Kanifing, The Gambia is a centre of excellence and training for eye care in the West African sub-region. It provides training programmes for several levels of eye care personnel, including a Diploma in Ophthalmology and an Advanced Diploma in Ophthalmology (community or surgical focus).

The eye clinic is where Alasana and Sarjo Kanyi are based. It is the biggest and best eye hospital in The Gambia.

All serious cases are referred to the SZRECC. Nevertheless, the surgeons there do not have the capability to carry out the most difficult procedures and surgeons from other countries go there to give them a hand. The waiting room is large but jammed full every day. The sight of the waiting room astounded Mariama and she continually refers to it. We are hoping to get some photos to show the scale next time we are there. It really is impossible to overestimate the demand for eye care in The Gambia.

Mariama’s meeting was a great success and she was able to spend some of her well earned holiday working with the staff at the SZRECC, sharing her recently learned education and knowledge and being shown, and experiencing, some of the difficulties encountered there, on the ground.  

She called us on her return to discuss her experiences. And explained something that we had not been aware of……..  As you all know we have concentrated our efforts in helping those very poor Gambians who live far from the conurbations where cash is scarce and travel difficult…… unless you have money.

She was able to explain to us that, at the main eye hospital, they were regularly approached by people who urgently required cataract surgery but were quite unable to pay the modest fee set by the hospital.  These people she described as the blind urban poor….. 

Lack of tourism due to Covid has taken a very heavy toll on such people…. Begging from those who have no money is practically impossible.  We know several Gambians who generally rely on begging or doing really menial work in order to feed themselves and their families. 

The needs of these individuals had quite evaded our radar.  Mariama told us that if Alasana had a just a small fund, he could provide operations for some of these desperate people. 

We sent enough money for ten operations.   We now have the clinical report for those patients.  You will see there the surgeon’s rationale for selecting those patients and you can read it here

Of particular interest were a 33 year old woman with 7 children and a 16 year old lad, who had suffered a trauma causing the cataract, two years before!

In the image below you can see one of the blind patients, ready ‘marked’ for surgery,  being   prepared  for his operation by his disabled wife.

Following his successful surgery, he told Alasana “I can see you!”  

This just makes me smile and makes me want to thank each, and every one of you who contribute in any way at all.  

We are thinking that we must put some more regular funding into this initiative if we possibly can.  We will let you know and if you have an opinion we would like to hear it. You can drop us an email here.

Cataract Camps 6, 7 and 8 in Kaur, Kerewan, and Farafeni

May - August 2021

Posted by Violet Phillips, 11th October 2021

Good grief it is October already!

I want to tell you about 'Super Camp’ number 6 but in fact it was THREE camps worth in one - so this blog counts as 6, 7 and 8! EEEEekkkkkkkk. 182 eyes mended. We are so chuffed.

The camps were held at three locations. They were

• North Bank East Health Region and Kaur

• Kerewan

• Farafeni General Hospital

Here you can see a little video that I made with the help of Dylan, my 18 year old grandson. It shows a lady called Kumba, she is 80 years old and has been cataract blind for the last two years. One eye was actually blind but they operated on the other and the video shows her before and after her successful operation. It's only one minute long - mind you it took us bloomin' hours to do!!!!!

The idea of the super camp was developed from the strategy used for camp 5. The team did a survey of the North Bank East Region and administered basic medication and advice and sorted suitable patients for the operation this time in three different locations, Farrafeni, Kaur and Kerewan.

They were able to give suitable patients (the younger cataract blind ones) operations to both eyes! It was unsurprisingly a long drawn out process lasting from late May until the middle of August, then of course the surgeon in charge had to write a report, which is no mean feat given the problems with the dodgy internet there and lack of good computers! Incidentally, if any of you have an unused laptop that needs a good home please let me know, we are hoping to visit in the new year, Covid permitting and take them out with us.

The report came over the weekend. You can find it here. For your information patient 30 is Kumba, the lady in the video. The report is really detailed and to my mind very moving. Sheriff (the surgeon) had all the way along, been sending us photos trying to help us understand how it was going.

There are more pictures below. You will notice how well dressed the patients look. This is a really big day for them and an excellent excuse to get dressed up.

There are photos, as they turned up, with their marked eye and then with bandages and some showing the patients with their medication ready to go home after their pep talk about keeping the site clean. I am particularly pleased with the smiley pictures.

Thank everyone of you who contribute one off donations and on a regular basis. You can see it makes such a difference, each one of these individuals now can get on with their lives and contribute to their communities.

As always, please do contact me if you need any more information on how to help with donations, equipment, old laptops or with any other questions. Your help is invaluable. You really do change peoples lives.

An Exciting Delivery: Getting Vital Optical Equipment to the The Gambia - Part 2

July 2021

Our shipment to the Gambia has arrived! Above you can see pictures of the team unpacking the equipment we shipped just a few weeks before.

As well as these amazing gifts from Gary Evans, which I wrote about in part one, (which arrived magically ahead of schedule) I have news of other wonderful things……..

We were also remarkably lucky to be able to network with John Sandford-Smith. John was an ophthalmic surgeon who, many years ago worked in several third world countries including the Gambia.  His book, Eye Diseases in Hot Climates, is a much-valued reference manual for our team in the Gambia.  He is a highly respected and knowledgable guy, understanding the particular challenges that working in such impoverished countries present.  

He has been involved in the development of a small, cheap and very robust ophthalmoscope made by The Arclight Project at St Andrew’s University.  The Arclight Project is a social enterprise based in the School of Medicine at the University of St Andrews.

“We enable those working in low to middle income countries to equip, train and empower health workers of all grades to confidently diagnose and manage eye and ear disease. Frugal kit and targeted learning ensures users can make on-the-spot decisions themselves.” (https://med.st-andrews.ac.uk/arclight/)

John provided us with a sample which we sent to the team for their feedback.  They were delighted and said they would be very, very useful in enabling staff to take a good look at the eye without more elaborate equipment.

The Opthalmmoscope looks quite like a highlighter pen, and its light source is run by a solar cell.  It has the ability to be used to examine ears as well as eyes.  We decided that we could afford 10 and were somewhat dismayed to find out we had to order in multiples of 25!  Eeek!

However, the price to charities like ours much lower than the retail price, so we wen ahead and ordered 25……… only to receive 50, FREE OF CHARGE!

This was just such a wonderful windfall.  Now we have been told they are all donated for free. We are SO grateful to all concerned.  It is such a wonderful donation!

Now at about the same time, we have been very privileged indeed to be given a box of surgical materials by Mohammed Dahabi a locum consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital.  These were picked up from his home in May by me and Jim on the way to see my brother.   They were dispatched with the Arclights in June.

Above are some photos of the goods arriving.  The photo of Alasana (wearing chin mask!) and his boss Sarjo Kanyi makes me grin, they are just so delighted to receive these precious items.

As I write on this the 15th July, the operating microscope (from the shipped crate) is being used in Soma. A much needed aid to better eye care. Brikama, Farafenni and Basse have received each received a slit lamp and a tonometer each and the final slit lamp is being used in consultation room 4 at the SZRECC, that is the main eye hospital in Kanifing. More news due really soon.  Thank you for taking time to read this. 

If you use Amazon please remember to look for smile.amazon and choose us Cataracts are Curable as your charity of choice. 

It cost you nothing and makes the world of a difference to those suffering disability and feelings of low self-esteem merely because they cannot see to help care for themselves, and for their young.

Alternately just £40 can pay for a cataract operation and change a life. You can donate here.

An Exciting Delivery: Getting Vital Optical Equipment to the The Gambia - Part 1

June 2021

It’s been a busy time for us here at the charity. despite not being able to travel we have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to get much needed equipment from the UK to the Gambia. Here is Jim with some of the amazing ‘pre-loved’ optical equipment donated and delivered to us in March, by Gary Evans from EyeTech Optical, an amazing company that supports the work we do.  All of the equipment needed to be prepared ready for transport across the sea to The Gambia

The picture on the right is of an operating microscope.

We had been asked if we could supply one for the team. However the cost of a new one made it an impossibility. We told Gary what we needed and bless his heart, he managed to obtain this beauty. During our last visit to The Gambia we had seen the poor state of one of these delicate instruments. One had to be tied to the ceiling in order for it to function.

These are Tanometers.

They are used to test the pressure in the eye prior to surgery.  You may have seen in the photographs from camp four (see blog below) , where the nurses used a hand held instrument to do the same thing.    

Once we have carefully wrapped the instruments (the result of many hours on our knees!), we transport them to one of our supporting partners P&D Casemaking in Poole. As you can see its a tight fit getting them all in the car! We are so grateful to the wonderful staff at P&D for helping us create bespoke cases to ship these extremely important pieces of equipment to The Gambia. You cannot underestimate the difference they will make to hundreds, possibly thousands of the poorest Gambians whose lives are so severely impaired through lack of sight.

Once the equipment is packed, it is loaded onto a truck and heads for the port for it’s long journey via container ship to the Gambia. We hope that this equipment will arrive and start being used by mid-July. To see what happens next please scroll up to part two of this blog.

Cataract Camp 5 - Katamina,

12th - 14th January 2021

To read the formal report clck here

Posted by Violet Phillips, 7th February 2021

Well here we are at this bizarre and very challenging time in our world history,  BUT I have good news for you about our little world.

Following our successful camp 4 during the Covid emergency, we were cautious about starting anything new in spite of having lots of bits of funding arriving.  THANK YOU those of you who bought a Christmas card “The Gift of an Eye” for someone who has everything and those of you who donate regularly.

So: Early December, we were contacted by Alansana Touray who works as a surgeon at  the main eye centre in Knifing.  He told us about his village which is called Sambang,  it is nearly 200 miles from the conurbations where tourists may be found. He said that there were about 36 villages local to Sambang who could take part.  He wrote that every time he went home to visit his village “many people come to me with eye complaints, unfortunately I cannot help them….”

He suggested that Cataracts are Curable might be interested in carrying out a Community Screening of eyes in this area.  He said he would work over his weekend unpaid, but we would need to pay for transport for him and his colleague from the Bansang Hospital (50 kilometres away).  Also for certain items and materials to conduct the survey and provide basic eye care when required.  These included 

 Eye ointment, two different kinds of eye drops, sanitizer, tissues, facemasks and fuel. AND GLASSES

 This interested us.  The cost benefit was obvious.  Our ethos has always been to do the greatest good we can do for the greatest many, -given the means we have at our disposal.  

Curing cataracts benefits the individual AND those around them.  Sight is fundamental to so many aspects of life, particularly in a third world country.  Mobility, independence, self-reliance, productivity and physical and mental wellbeing all come to mind.  

The Eye screening would mean that if we carried out our next camp there then the patients could be easily assembled.  It meant that Alasana who we consider to be a friend, would be able to support his community in a very meaningful way AND some of the eye problems that are common in such communities may easily be fixed.  The last time Jim and I visited The Gambia last year, there was a significant problem with conjunctivitis.  We saw many people really suffering.  Poverty, dusty conditions and lack of knowledge of basic hygiene exacerbated the problem.  This underlined for us what a cost effective  strategy this was.  ALL of the people screened would have an experience of receiving professional medical help, many could be treated simply.  A real positive.

 He promised us a full report of his findings, which he did.  They identified over 70 cases of mature cataracts.  Various people were referred to SZRECC the main hospital because he believed they had Glaucoma.

 Over 40 of those seen were given medication and advice on the spot, a few were issued with glasses (I am not sure where these came from).  A very positive and pleasing result.

 The screening took place in December in period 18th to 20th December.  The surgeon collecting screening information, you will see he has medication ready and a selection of used glasses.

The acuity test and villagers  awaiting their screening.  Note their beautiful clothing a signal of their respect to the nursing and other medical staff.  This event is ‘an outing’ -  rare in their villages.

The cataract camp took place 12th 14th January 2021.  52 cataracts were done.

Cataract Camp 4 - Essau,

11th August - 30th September 2020

To read the formal report click here

Posted 18th November by Violet Phillips

Well what a year we have had! I am thrilled to finally be able to report on our fourth cataract camp - some good news in a tough year.

The costs for this camp we are met exclusively by the generosity of  Zabir Ali, Managing Director at Wessex Optical. We would like to thank him for his hugely generous donation that made this camp possible.

Covid-19 has obviously affected The Gambia, so these operations were conducted in small batches under Covid restrictions, for the safety of all concerned.

This camp was held at the Essau District Hospital between 11th August to 30th September 2020.   

This hospital serves the North Bank West Region of The Gambia that comprises Lower Nuimi, Upper Nuimi and Jokadou.  This is a particularly poor area of The Gambia, very little tourism therefore very little opportunity to get hold of cash. A total of 83 patients with cataracts were screened.  50 were selected for the cataract operations.  These operations were carried out by Mustapha Jagne who is the POMA (Principal Opthalmic Medical Assistant) who runs the North Bank West Region.

The full report is available here. I have put together a brief synopsis of how to read the ‘outcome’ table below, as it can get quite complicated!

Abbreviations

VA is visual acuity  - that is how clearly a person can see, is the image fuzzy or with does it have crisp edges?

LE is left eye

RE is the right eye

For patients that are almost blind, the assessor will use the following abbreviations.

HM is Hand Movements - as seen from half a metre.

CF is count fingers - the patient can count fingers on someones hand from half a metre away.

PL is perception of light - this means just that, there is merely the perception of light.

What to know about the numbers AND LINEs.

The gold standard of vision is 6/6  or what we know as 20:20  vision.

The sight chart used at Kaur is much like the charts we have here in the UK, but they use lines, pointing in various directions instead of letters of the alphabet. This is illustrated in the image below.

If the patient can only see the top line they will register that eye as being 6/60.  So very poor, but better than only being able to see hand movements (HM) or counting fingers (CF) or worst of all perceiving only light (PL).

Having taken in all of this you, like me will be delighted with the ‘outcomes’ which can be found  on the far left of the table in the camp report.  Remember 6/6 is 20:20 vision .  The higher the number to the right of the 6, the poorer the sight of the patient.

As Mustapha Jagne states:  “All of the operations had a successful outcome. With 43 of the 50 patients having good vision, 7 borderline eyesight but nonetheless better than before the operation.”

Another real success made possible by your kind donations.

Our fourth camp is underway and how to help by using Amazon Smile.

We are very happy that our FOURTH cataract camp is underway.  It is being carried out in Essau which is on the north bank of The Gambia.  The eye surgeon in charge of this is called Mustapha Jagne.

He has explained to us that because of the precautions in place due to Corona Virus they are approaching this ‘camp’ in a very different way.  Patients will attend individually to be seen, screened and then operated on as necessary.

He sent us a story about an old woman called Mammy who was brought in by her 7 year old grandson.  He said he operated on her successfully and now both she and the boy are ‘free’, her from her debilitating blindness and he from the onerous task of taking care of her, ensuring that she does not find herself in danger.

The photo shows them attending the clinic, note their smart clothing.  This is an important day for the pair of them.  Gambians always wear their best on such occasions.

Thank you Mustapha and thank each and every one of our supporters.

You could help simply by making purchases from Amazon. Head to Amazon smile and select Cataracts are Curable - The Gambian Project as your charity of choice. Click this link to register Cataracts are Curable as your Amazon Smile charity of choice,

Every little helps.

Help Us By Using AmazonSmile When You Shop!

We have signed up to take part in the AmazonSmile scheme and would love for you to help us share the news far and wide!

AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on amazon.co.uk. The difference is that when customers shop through the URL smile.amazon.co.uk, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT, returns and shipping fees) of eligible purchases to the charitable organisations selected by customers. That means 0.5% of the net purchase goes towards Cataract Are Cureable.

It’s exactly the same as using the standard Amazon website but really helps us raise vital funds for the poorest Gambians. Please he’d over to our facebook page to share the news and thank you once again for all your support.

Cataract Camp 3

Kaur, 3-5 February 2020

To read the formal report click here

Posted 3rd July 2020 by Violet Phillips.

Goodness me …… what a time we had visiting The Gambia in February.  We are chuffed to say that Cataract camp THREE is now complete.

As part of our annual holiday in The Gambia we were very privileged to be able to go up to Kaur, on The North Bank (interestingly crossing the brand new bridge over the River Gambia) to witness for ourselves Cataract camp three.

It is a long journey, on the way we popped into Soma hospital to visit the senior ophthalmic nurse Famada Ceesay who showed us one of the refurbished slit lamps given to us by Gary Evans, a wonderful friend of Cataracts are Curable AND the Gambian people.

We then stayed overnight at Farrafenni hospital thanks to the generosity of Wandifa Samateh, the CEO of that hospital who is very interested and supportive of the work we are doing.  

Travelling to Kaur took over an hour from Farrafenni.  When we arrived at the hospital, we could see a large group of individuals sitting in a shelter in the grounds.  So many people.  We watched as they were briefed on how the day would go by the surgeon …………….  We then witnessed them walk together into the hospital corridors.  The sight of all of these people hoping to regain their sight so that they could get back to work go to look after their families and farms and visit the Mosque and generally get their lives back was so very humbling.  Me and Jim looked at each other with a huge lump in our throats. 

WE and YOU had made this happen.

We met the nursing team: Aji, Ma and Mamuna, each surprisingly wearing their day clothes…. NOT uniforms.  We were told that nurses’ uniform was not seen as modest by many of these upcountry people who were today assembled.   Many of these folk had walked many kilometres to get here.

The processing of patients was very organised.  Many had appointment sheets given to them some days previously when they had visited various health outposts complaining of eye problems.  

All individuals had to be assessed for ‘acuity’.  This was very interesting.

You can see the chart that is used.  Because these fold are very poor it is rare for them to be able to read in any meaningful way.  To assess acuity therefore i.e. – the ability to be able to distinguish items from a distance, this chart rather home made chart is used.   An example of the sheer poverty of The Gambia.

The patient is required to say which of the lines they can see clearly from a distance of approximately 20 feet.  A second acuity test is carried out the next day, following the operation to give an indication of how well the operation went.  These acuity figures can be seen in the cataract report sent to us by the surgeon Sheriff Bah.

After this the surgeon examines the patient’s eyes.  Sadly some people were turned away, because they had other eye related problems, preventing them seeing well.  Whilst I sat watching, four individuals were told they had Glaucoma.  This requires medication AND for the rest of their lives if they are not to lose their sight.  We found out the medication cost 200D per month.  Money that I know was not available.  This made me desperately sad.

One man was told that he was permanently blind, to make matters worse he also had conjunctivitis and his eyes were itchy and red.  THE SURGEON himself gave the guy some Dalasi to buy the medication to help him.  It broke my heart.  I offered him the money but he would not accept it.

If the patient was fit for surgery, they next had the pressure in their eyes tested.  Each patient had to lie down and be subjected to a ‘tanometer’ test.  They were asked to hold their hand above their face and focus on their thumb knuckle whilst the nurse used the implement to assess the pressure in the eyeball.  For many of the patients this proved problematic, they obviously felt afraid.  Once the measurement was made this information was duly collected.

This bit of video demonstrates this difficult procedure.

A couple of times the nurses reported back to the surgeon that the eye pressure reading was too high for the patient to have surgery that day, hugely disappointing for the patient who was keyed up to have their eyes fixed.

When the nurses completed this task, they marked the cataract patients brow with surgical tape to show which eye was to be operated on.

There was then a very long wait whilst all the rest of the patients were processed.

The surgery started late in the afternoon and the surgeon carried on into the next morning.  Meanwhile we went out into the hospital grounds to stretch our legs - the wandering coast were a surprise!                     

At around 5 o clock that evening we watched food being cooked fresh in the yard under a Mango tree.

We were invited to eat with the patients and camp team but we were exhausted. 

I have to say the food smelt delicious, the cooks prepared fresh vegetables and fish to add to the most enormous pot of rice I have ever seen.

Below are some photos taken of the surgery taking place.

Clockwise from top left: The kit required for each operation, preparation, the anaesetic being administered, patients waiting in the surgery.

The team then had to set about checking the eyes post surgery.

You can see many of the patients again sitting in an orderly way waiting to see how successful the operation has been for them.

The team checked acuity again for their notes and the final camp report and then gave each patient advice and instructions plus the all important medication, in the form of eye drops, to keep the eyes clean and healthy post op.

Remember it is your money and your goodwill that allows these life changing operations.  Thank you so much. You can donate using the button below. Just £40 can restore someones sight and change their life.

 This blog, begun in February has been waiting for some normalcy to return to the UK.  Hopefully it has come.  

I am pleased to report that The Gambia up to today 30th June has come out of this Corona Virus pandemic lightly thanks to sensible Gambian Government action.

Cataract Camp 2

Basse, 11-16th November 2019

To read the formal report click here

Posted 3rd March 2020 by Violet Phillips.

YOU LIVE AND YOU LEARN

Well…..being able to complete this blog has taken ages and I am so sorry, but here it is!  

Our second eye camp took place in Basse during the period 11th to 16th November.   What we did not know was that the camp was to be carried in in two major sessions.  We were very surprised and not a little concerned not to have a camp report promptly as had happened with our first camp.

It turns out that the surgeon Mr Dukereh had mistakenly believed that we had asked that all of the patients from the first cataract camp who had bi-lateral cataracts i.e had two nearly blind eyes,  were offered a second operation.  This delayed the completion of the camp.

It seems that each of the patients eligible for a second operation were contacted and some of them either did not want a second operation because they were satisfied they could see OR were non contactable for whatever reason.    

Poor Mr Dukereh, really was stuck between a rock and a hard place  Me and Jim and his bosses hassling him for the report and his absolute frustration at not being able to contact some of the patients to complete the camp. 

This is a mistake that we will not make again.   A misunderstanding, 3000 miles is a long way when communicating with those whose second language is English.  

The second camp was eventually completed in January.  The handwritten appendix to the report is to be found under the main report on our CAMP REPORT. It contains details of the final seventeen patients who were treated.

The reason it is handwritten is because of the pressure of time on Mr Dukereh, poor chap has been hounded for the report and it was sent by whatsap because the internet up country (in Basse where he works) is VERY intermittent.  We did not mind that it was not typewritten.

We like to have at least some photos from the camps but it is a big ask of the people who are doing the job,  

Of notable interest in this camp  was an 80 year old lady called Ndungu :

 This Christmas, Give a Life Changing Gift. The Gift of Sight.

This year, we are again offering donors Cataracts Are Curable Christmas gift cards. We believe that Christmas is a time for kindness, hope and giving, and are pleased to be able to offer an alternative to traditional gifts.

In a world full of manufactured waste, we think that gifting an operation is quite simply the most wonderful thing you can do.  What could be more special than giving someone the gift of sight?

Just £40 can restore sight in one eye and change a life forever.

If you make a donation of £10.00 (or more if you wish), we can either send you a gift card to send on with your personal message or, if you give us the recipients details, we can send it directly to them for no charge.

Please contact Violet using the button above.  She will take your details and ensure that you or your intended recipient receives a card informing them of your generous gift.

Many thanks for your continued support. We would like to wish you a restful holiday season and a peaceful new year.

This is not just a seasonal gift - it is a lifetime gift.

Jim and Violet.

Cataract Camp 1

Basse, 24-25th August 2019

To read the formal report click here

Posted 30th September 2019 by Violet Phillips.

It is with enormous pleasure I write this our first cataract blog. It was a scramble to put together because through your generosity the funds were available rather earlier than we had anticipated.

The Camp was carried out on the weekend of 24th and 25th August. Our team decided that Basse should be the initial target of attack, having carried out previous surgeries there in conjunction with Friends of The Gambia Association, they had a list of very urgent cases just waiting for some funds to  be available.

Plans to have the camp professionally filmed, to show you how these things are carried through were thwarted sadly, but Alasana Touray, one of the team promised to do the best he could with his trusty phone.  We are really grateful, for his time and effort thus enabling me to write and illustrate this blog.

First though,  I want to say a big thank you to the team who visited Basse to do so much good, here is a short video (sadly rather dark) of some of them having a simple meal together after their first days work.

We understand the team worked from 8 am to 9.30 pm on the first day.  The Surgeon is Ebrima Dukureh and his assistant Mr Baldeh.

Patients are identified and told when to attend.  Many are so blind they have to be accompanied to the health outpost. The video below shows one such patient.

You will notice that a cataract camp is like an assembly line. Time is of the essence,  our team need to get through the fifty anxious patients over the weekend.  Alasana said “they are waiting with mixed feelings….”  The team do the operations in batches.  The first batches on Saturday when they did  35 ops,   then the second batch of 15 on Sunday.

Once in the queue,  a member of the team ensures the patients are fit enough for the procedure.

One of the team was assigned the task of anesthetising the patients ready for the op and they are then operated on, one at a time. The rest of the patients wait in line. The following photos show the anaesthetist at work, the line forming outside the outpost, Alasana reassuring the patients and explaining the process to them and the operation.

They are examined the next day to ensure the operation is successful and to pick up the necessary medication to keep the eye clean.  They will then be see in a week to ensure all is well.

Alasana very kindly took various videos of individuals at the camp, explaining why the operation is so important to them. We hope that they also demonstrate how we use the money that you, our donors, give us.

Sarjo – the lady in blue 

This lady was blind with cataracts in both eyes, you can hear her conversation with Alasano.  She tells him that she is a farmer, she farms potatoes and okra, she has been unable to do any work.  Her husband is now dead, she has two daughters who she tries to send to school, family have helped but in effect she could not pay to have her eyes fixed in order to work.   Now the girls are ready to attend secondary school but she cannot send them, because she is unable to work to earn a living.  Senior secondary school is expensive.   The girls are really upset that they cannot attend school.  I am upset because education I believe is a key route out of poverty.

Alasano so wanted to get both of Sarjo’s eyes done because of her difficult circumstances.  He shows the camera the extent of her cataracts.  

His boss would not allow this because he had assigned the 50 operations already to 50 individuals! This makes Alasana really sad.  Sarjo is not the only doubly blind individual today.

The video at the end of this piece shows the difference that the one operation makes. We have every intention of returning to Basse to complete the job.

There are other stories…… 

These guys, obviously shy of the camera, but see them in the final clip…… makes my heart swell!

Please take a moment to watch this final video. It shows Sarjo after her operation and our two camera shy older men both overwhelmed with their results. There people can now see. They can go back to work and to caring for their families. We are thrilled to have been able to help change their lives, but there is a lot more work to do. At the end of this video you can see Sarjo Kanji who manages these operations, his smile says so much.

Without your donations, we would not be able to do this work. Our next camp is likely to be in Basse late 2019 or early 2020. If you would like to help us to change the lives of many more Gambians, you can donate here. Just £40 buys sight in one eye for the poorest Gambians.

SLIT LAMP AND TRIAL FRAMES START THEIR JOURNEY TO THE GAMBIA!

Posted 12th August 2019 by Violet Phillips.

We are over the moon to report that we now have a sixth refurbished slit lamp on it’s way the The Gambia, courtesy of one of our brilliant partners, Gary Evans from Eyetech-Optical.

A slit lamp is a microscope with a bright light used during an eye examination. It gives the ophthalmologist a closer look at the different structures at the front of the eye and inside the eye. It’s a key tool in determining the health of eyes and detecting eye disease. These lamps are extremely important in The Gambia. They are expensive to buy and often in a state of disrepair. The fully functioning lamps that we are able to take our are a key resource in the carataract camps.

On the 19th July, Jim drove over to pick up the lamp. They are very heavy, cumbersome and delicate things, and as such need to be packaged and transported very carefully.

Sadly, bubble wrap just won’t do the job, so we need to get bespoke cases made for every lamp we send to The Gambia. This would be extremely costly if it wasn't for our wonderful partners P&D Casemakers who are based in Poole.

Jim took the lamp to the casemakers at the end of July and they called us on the fifth to pick it up. Such excellent service and they refused to accept a penny for their work.

We were very surprised how big the box was, it took huge effort to get it into the car! When we got home, it took several of our neighbours to put it in our garage to await the transport to take it to the docks to be shipped.

We are also lucky enough to have received several Trial Frames that will also be sent to the Gambia. These frames are used to assess patients eyesight and allow the doctors to provide them with the correct prescription. We were very lucky to be introduced to Mark Downing from Bio Engineering Services, who has become one of our new partners.

Mark donated 6 pairs of Trial Frames that he had refurbished and they have been packaged up and will be sent with four brand new pairs purchased by Cataract are Curable.

Both the slit lamp and the Trail Frames have now been picked up we expect them to reach the eye team at Knifing any time now.

(Posted 28th October 2019: The trial frames arrived at the SZRECC on 16th August 2019 and have been distributed throughout The Gambia. The slit lamp is still making its way by sea and land to The Gambia.)

Huge thanks to all out partners for their help on this - we will be sure to keep you all updated with how the items are being used when we visit later this year. If you know anyone who can donate ophthalmic equipment or help us with travel and logistics, please get in contact with us by clicking here.