HCP Cure Blindness

The day after surgery at Boru Meda Hospital, hundreds of patients gather under a large white tent set in a rural pasture. With the chill winter winds blowing, they sit wrapped in fuzzy blankets and bold patterned scarves.

The white bandages covering their eyes stand in stark contrast to these bright colors, but with the energy in the tent you’d think you crashed a community campout – not a medical outreach.

Some patients sing to pass the time. Others beam proudly as their bandages are removed and they look their doctor in the eye for the first time. With their sight restored, elderly patients seem to shed 20 years while the younger ones exude a confidence they’ve never known.

This is just a glimpse of last December’s outreach, when the HCP team and our local partners completed 1,575 cataract surgeries at Boru Meda Hospital in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia.

We are so grateful for the opportunity to bear witness to this transformative experience because every outreach reminds us of the true impact that a simple, 15-minute surgery can have on a community.

To give you a taste of that transformation, two patients from this outreach share their stories.

Sixty-year-old farmer and father of four Mohamed lost his eyesight two years ago. He has only been able to move around by touch or with his children's assistance.

Mohamed could no longer work. He could no longer see the faces of the children that helped him day-to-day. And he feared he would never marry again because of the stigma against blindness in his country.

Then, one day, Mohamed's nephew brought him to Boru Meda Hospital for care. Mohamed was told that his condition was reversible: they could remove his cataracts and restore his sight. All he had to do was come back for a free surgery during the HCP Cureblindness outreach in December.

Mohamed anxiously awaited the day of his surgery, and when that day came, he made the trek to Boru Meda. Within 24 hours his bandages were off and he could see the world that had faded from his view years ago. He could see his children’s smiling faces. And he could envision finding love once again.

As he told us, "Vision is power, and I will marry again.”

Alto is a 50-year-old farmer and father of 10. He lost his vision in both eyes about a year ago.

For those of us gifted with good vision, it’s easy to overlook all the things lost – all the opportunities missed – when your sight is impaired. You miss out on life’s simple pleasures, like a beautiful sunset, as well as life’s most precious moments.

Alto’s daughter, Birri, was planning to marry. It broke his heart to think that he wouldn’t be able to witness this milestone in Birri’s life. He was also frustrated and embarrassed that he wouldn’t be able to see and welcome the wedding guests.

Then Alto heard about HCP’s upcoming outreach. So, in December of 2022, Alto came to Boru Meda Hospital. After a simple, 15-minute surgery he waited eagerly for the bandages to come off. When they did the next day, Alto was overjoyed to realize his sight was truly restored.

Today, he looks forward to looking his daughter’s wedding guests in the eye, shaking their hands, and watching as his Birri smiles and dances the night away. "I am happy now to welcome the guests," he explained with a smile on his face.

HCP is partnering with Helen Keller International (HKI) this year in Tanzania. The collaboration, which pairs HKI's expertise in Trachomatous Trichiasis (TT) care and HCP's in cataract care, will ensure that local practitioners reach more patients in need through their already existent TT case finding and clinical flow.

Earlier this year, five Tanzanian eye care professionals attended an outreach in Ethiopia to work directly with staff from the HCP Ethiopia team and HCP Board Member Dr. Matt Oliva during the week-long outreach where nearly 1,200 patients had their sight restored. The team of Tanzanians have worked with HKI to treat Trachomatous Trichiasis (TT) in the Mbeya Region of their home country.

Since their time in Ethiopia, the team of Tanzanians continued to receive support and guidance from HCP from afar to pair their TT case finding with cataract screening. Processes for monthly high-volume cataract surgical outreaches were established and outreach equipment, provided by HCP, arrived in-country to begin work. With over 500 cataract cases identified, the project’s surgical schedule solidified.

HCP’s Co-Founder, Dr. Geoff Tabin, arrived in Mbeya earlier this month to support Dr. Barnabas and his team for their first high-volume cataract outreach. He was supported by two other surgeons from the US to work closely with the Tanzania team of two surgeons, two optometrists, and three ophthalmic nurses to deliver their first high-volume cataract outreach at the Mbarali District Hospital in Rujewa.

The Tanzanian team demonstrated the outreach management skills they’d mastered in Ethiopia, and over four days together, the team restored sight to nearly 300 patients. The exposure to hundreds of surgeries offered an immense opportunity for Dr. Tabin and his team to bolster the HKI team’s clinical skills and small incision cataract surgery expertise.

“My youngest child is eight years old now, and the last time I saw his face was when he was 4 years old. My other relatives and my youngest son still don’t believe that I can really see again. They are waiting to see me prove it,” said a forty-three-year-old man who received surgery in both eyes.

Another patient shared, “I can’t believe that I can see again, I had lost hope.”

At the outreach, long lasting relationships among the Tanzanian and the US teams were built, clinical skills were gained, and the teams showed the true success of the HCP-HKI Mbeya pilot: reaching those in need of care through a collaboration leveraging two organizations’ expertise. Soon, both will look to the neighboring district of Songwe to scale this approach which pairs TT and cataract care to ensure no one is left behind.