Mobile cataract camps
In countries with a fragile infrastructure like Liberia, the most effective way of delivering eye care to those in need of it is through cataract camps. Because of the lack of resources, we have had to rely on collaboration between our partners in neighboring Sierra Leone with our team in Liberia. Without this intervention, the only eye care available was by way of the traditional healer.
A stark picture
Avoidable blindness is a major problem in Liberia. There are currently 122 doctors serving the whole country, which equates to one doctor for every 28,000 Liberians. Most qualified medical professionals fled Liberia during the bloody civil war, and are still leaving a country that is struggling to recover from the resulting economic ruin and remaining corruption. People in rural areas like the South East therefore cannot get proper medication due to lack of trained manpower.
Ninty-year-old grandmother Juah Weah, had been blind for over thirty years before she was operated on at a mobile cataract camp. “I got to know about the activities of the eye camp from a friend of mine and was taken to the camp by the medial team,” she said.
Dancing with happiness
72-year-old Jlopleh Barney also found out about a camp through people from her home town of Barclayville, who had been treated the previous year. She lost her sight 14 years ago, and said she was overwhelmed with joy following her operation. When she was reunited with her family members, she danced with happiness!
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