HCP manages eye care intervention in Mayange, Rwanda
Eye care intervention in Mayange, Rwanda. Photos by Ace Kvale.
Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) managed an eye care intervention in Mayange, Rwanda in July 2009 in collaboration with HCP Fellow Dr. John Nkurikiye and the Millennium Villages Project (MVP). The village intervention was part of the HCP’s collaborative efforts with MVP to carry out comprehensive eye care assessments in thirteen villages in Sub-Saharan Africa with the goal of assessing the impact and cost of community-based screening and treatment initiatives on the burden of avoidable blindness in the region.
Prior to the intervention, with support from the HCP, Dr. John Nkurikiye trained in cornea at the Tilganga Eye Centre in Kathmandu, the Moran Eye Center in Salt Lake City, Utah and the Medical Eye Center in Medford, Oregon.
Through the village screening in Mayange, 2,000 people were screened for eye disease. Patients with vision less than 6/24 were transported to the county hospital for cataract surgery. Surgical treatment was also provided for pterygia and corneal scarring, refraction was performed and eye medications distributed. In total, 122 cataract surgeries were performed.
In addition to the village intervention, Dr. Geoffrey Tabin provided cornea training at the King Faisal Hospital in Kigali with donated tissue from SightLife. Dr. Tabin and Dr. Nkurikiye performed a total of 21 corneal replacement surgeries.
The team included Drs. Tabin and Nkurikiye, local medical staff, two medical students and two ophthalmic assistants from the Tilganga Eye Centre in Kathmandu who have extensive experience managing high-volume cataract programs. The team was also joined by photographer Ace Kvale, film producer Michael Brown of Serac Adventure Films and writer David Relin.
Read Michael Brown's blog about his experience in Rwanda.
The HCP continues to work with Dr. Nkurikiye to improve eye care in Rwanda, a country with 10 ophthalmologists for 11 million people. Six of the ophthalmologists are in Kigali, with an approximate population of 600,000.
More on the Himalayan Cataract Project's work with Millenium Villages
Photos by Ace Kvale.