Medair partners with Christian Blind Mission to restore vision to the blind in South Sudan.

In the last 10 days of September, the town of Ayod in South Sudan began buzzing with excitement: the Christian Blind Mission's mobile eye safari was arriving. Blindness is a major problem in South Sudan, but it can often be treated and cured with appropriate medical care. Unfortunately, appropriate care is difficult to secure in this country. The CBM are currently the only team providing cataract surgeries to the entire population of 11 million in South Sudan, and as a result, their services are in high demand.

Medair had a TB clinic in Ayod, which is in Jonglei state in the Upper Nile. They invited CBM to provide their mobile outreach service in the town, and after 18 months of excited anticipation, the CBM team of five people arrived in Ayod, where they were greeted by heavy rains and dangerous flooding.

Heavy rains cause complications Their plane fortunately landed without incident, but the team had to wade through knee-high water at the airstrip to make their way to the Medair clinic. The CBM team rapidly transformed the TB laboratory into an operating theatre, while Medair's Community Health Workers assisted in registering and screening all the patients in the Primary Health Care Unit.

The extensive flooding significantly reduced the number of patients who had been expected to come to the clinic. It made it very difficult for anyone to travel, let alone blind people. Nonetheless, many blind patients braved the high waters, holding on to a stick and being led by their caretakers. Determined patients traveled for up to 6 days to reach the clinic, and they were rewarded by receiving excellent care from the CBM team.

During their 10 days in Ayod, 344 patients were assessed, with 73 receiving bilateral trachoma operations, and 69 receiving cataract operations. Here are some of their amazing stories:

Incredible stories of patients who were restored to sight

Nyajani is a 9-year-old girl who was admitted to the Medair TB programme in Ayod last April, with TB of the spine. She had also been suffering with very painful trachoma for over 3 years. Her eyelashes had become in-growing, and were painfully scratching the surface of her eye every time she blinked. Without a trachoma operation, she would have become blind by the age of 14. Medair staff performed the operation with the support of the CBM team. Since then, she has become much more outgoing, laughing and playing with other children. The restoration of Nyajani's sight increased her confidence, her self-esteem, and her hope for the future. She has been a real blessing and motivation to the team, and has been a source of strength to other children, encouraging them to be brave before the operation.

Diang was only in Ayod because of his 10-year-old son, Bol, who was receiving urgent treatment for Kala-Azar at the clinic. Diang and his family had walked 9 hours to the clinic. They had already lost 5 children to illness, and could not bear to lose Bol too. During their stay, the CBM team arrived, and noticed that Diang was blind in his left eye. His eye had been blinded 2 years earlier, when a stick had accidentally gone into it while dancers were simulating 'the hunt' as part of a marriage ritual. The CBM team conducted a cataract operation on Diang, and restored his vision. Diang is now looking forward to going home to continue cultivating his land, and is hopeful that with good vision he will be promoted to be sub-chief or even chief.

Got Puoch Gonyol is a delightful grandmother who lives next to the clinic in Ayod. She went blind due to cataracts 25 years ago. Her gradual loss of sight meant that she was not able to see her grandchildren being born or to help around the house. She persuaded her family to take her on the 3-day walk to Malakal to seek an operation, but found that there were no cataract operations taking place there, and so she returned to Ayod. In 2002, she heard that the CBM team was visiting Panygol, which was a 5-day walk from Ayod, so she set off in the hope that something might be done for her eyes. She received a cataract operation in her right eye and was amazed at the miracle that had taken place. Since then, she has been waiting and praying that the team would return to operate on the other eye. The day the CBM team arrived in Ayod, she was first in the queue and was fortunate to have her left eye operated on and restored to sight. Now that she has a matching pair, she feels she can provide for her family, and will no longer miss out on precious moments when additional grandchildren are born into this world. no longer miss out on precious moments when additional grandchildren are born into this world. no longer miss out on precious moments when additional grandchildren are born into this world. no longer miss out on precious moments when additional grandchildren are born into this world.

Nyakwai Deng is a 50-year-old widow who was blind from cataracts. She said that the cataracts started at a very sad time in her life, when she lost her husband in fighting, and all of her children except one were taken away to Ethiopia, where she had never seen them again. During that sad time, she cried every day, and now believes that her vision went cloudy because of all her tears. With no one left in her family to care for her, she struggled along for 5 years with barely enough vision to count the number of fingers in front of her face. When CBM came to Ayod, they removed the cataract from her left eye. As the bandages were taken off, Nyakwai was amazed to see how green the trees were, and the beauty of the creation all around. With her sight restored, her remaining hope is that she will be able to travel to Ethiopia to find out what happened to her lost sons.

Medair's partnership with CBM As these stories show, it is a powerful and life-changing gift to restore someone from blindness to sight. This is the work that CBM is dedicated to providing in South Sudan, and they also pass on their skills and experience to others whenever possible. During their short stay in Ayod, Medair received invaluable training from the CBM team. The Community Health Workers became excellent at assessing vision and assisting in surgery, and three Medair staff were trained in trachoma surgery, so they can continue preventing blindness without assistance from the CBM team.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that nearly 2 out of every 100 people are blind in South Sudan. This huge burden of blindness is a result of poverty, tropical diseases, and lack of eye care services. The main causes of blindness are cataracts, trachoma, and oncocerciasis. All of these diseases are either treatable by operation or preventable with good medication and hygiene practices.

This was the 13th eye safari that CBM has done in partnership with Medair, in different locations across South Sudan. In total, the CBM team has performed 11,800 operations in South Sudan since 1998, with 80% of their operations restoring sight. Medair is grateful for the strong partnership that exists with CBM, and looks forward to continuing to work together to eradicate avoidable blindness in South Sudan.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Medair

Medair is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), with its operational headquarters located in Switzerland. It has worked in Sudan since 1992. In Upper Nile, Medair is currently running an emergency nutrition programme in partnership with Tearfund, as well as increasing access to a number of primary health care units and safe water points. These projects are carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation, and UNICEF. They receive financial support from the Humanitarian Aid department of the European Union (ECHO), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/OFDA,) and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DfID).

Elsewhere in Southern Sudan, Medair provides emergency medical and water assistance for outbreaks, large people movements, and nutritional emergencies, as well as improving access to primary health care and safe water sources in a number of locations across the region. In the northern states, Medair provides access to primary health care and water and sanitation for up to 200,000 conflict-affected persons in West Darfur; works with war-displaced people in Khartoum; and supports access to primary health care in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan.

Medair's life-saving activities are dependent upon private financial support. To contribute to this work, please visit www.medair.org (Sudan section.)

About CBM

CBM Christian Blind Mission / Christoffel-Blindenmission is one of the leading international development agencies for persons with disabilities. It supports the provision of services to persons with visual disabilities as well as persons with other disabilities in more than 1,000 projects in 113 developing countries. CBM assists the world's poorest persons with disabilities and those at risk of disability regardless of their nationality, sex, or religion. For more information, please visit www.cbm.org

Delicio.us  |   Digg  |   NewsVine  |   Reddit                                                                                  Permalink