Our Story
Cataracts are Curable is a charity founded and run by trustees Violet and Jim Phillips.
After visiting The Gambia on a bird watching holiday in November 2011, Violet and Jim became fascinated by the culture and lives of the people living there, and soon became active members of the Friends of The Gambia Association (FoTGA). Subsequent yearly trips followed, with Violet and Jim becoming close with many of the families that they helped via FoTGA. The primary objective of the charity was to run a very successful sponsorship scheme for the education of children in The Gambia, helming them through school and on into further education. You can read more about the excellent work that FoTGA do here.
It was through their work with FoTGA that Violet and Jim attend one of the first cataract camps run by the charity. Cataracts are much more common in Africa than in Europe. Without intervention, the sufferer will slowly lose their sight until they go completely blind. This renders them unable to work - not even as a childminder - and as a result entire families and communities can lose their workforce, income and homes.
There is one ‘Centre of Excellence’ in the Gambia - Sheikh Zayed Regions Eye Care Centre in Knifing. This is often too far for people to travel and so the government have set up 8 secondary eye centres. it is at these centres that the camps are set up and run.
Since November 2014, FoTGA have funded over 845 Cataract operations across The Gambia. Cataracts are Curable aims to take on this work and continue it at pace, aiming for 1000 operations to have been completed by January 2020.
EFSTH formerly RVTH in Banjul
Essau Health Centre – North Bank Region West
AFPRC General Hospital – North Bank Region East
Basse Health Centre – Upper River Region
Bansang Health Centre – Central River Region
Soma Health Centre – Lower River Region
Sulayman Junkung General Hospital – East Central Region
Brikama Health Centre – West Central Region
Publicity: Local radio is used to inform local village health workers that there is to be a cataract camp. Scouts are sometimes sent out too, to remote villages.
Screening and identification: . Those with eye conditions are bought to a local centre for screening In other areas, scouts are sent out to the villages so that patients can be assessed at home.
Many who qualify for the free treatment have to be turned away. At one recent camp, 197 people were eligible but there was only money for 50 operations. The eye surgeons were forced to decide who would be chosen.
Travel: Once the camp is set, each patient must travel with an escort. Food must be provided for these 100 individuals, so breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided. Some patients walk 15 miles.
Aftercare. All patients are seen postoperatively and given medication and sunglasses as part of their aftercare. They are generally divided into three groups for their follow ups because these have to fit into the general hospital routines.
Transport : Some of the postoperative patients may be provided with partial transport home if the journey is long and arduous, using the eye team unit vehicle if there is funds for the fuel.
Operations: With two cataract surgeons, camps generally run over three days, typically the first day of the camp a total of 20 patients are operated, Second day 15 and the final third day 15. Amounting to a total of fifty patients whose sight is restored.
Problems encountered: One report says: “The main constraint is our operating microscope it’s the longest serving microscope. It has a brightness problem. The National Eye Programme has done its utmost to remedy it, but to no avail. We recommend a new one.”
“We have few staff but whenever we have programmes like this, staff from other eye units are invited along to make the work go smoothly”.
Biggest challenges:
The ophthalmic equipment is now old - Sight Savers left The Gambia in 2012
The abject poverty of those individuals who live out of the tourism areas
Bulbs for the Slit Lamps and operating microscopes. It is the nature of such equipment that the bulbs suffer ‘thermal shock’. New bulbs are expensive and have to be imported and must be fitted by a technician.
There is just one qualified technician across The Gambia, his name is Fafar.
Cataract operations are simple and cheap but the very poor people in The Gambia, in particular those ‘up country’ cannot afford to pay for an operation even though the charge is minimal.
The ‘consumable materials’ needed to perform a cataract operation cost £40.00.
The Government pay the staff, for the buildings and provide the vehicles but fuel is rationed.
This is the list of camps that have been funded by FoTGA. A formal report is written after each camp and sent to FoTGA in the UK.
November 2014 Soma 53 operations
April 2015 Soma and Karantaba 50 operations
October 2015 Essau 30 operations
October 2015 Soma 16 operations
April 2016 Kaur 50 operations
May 2015 Bansang 50 operations
October 2016 Bwiam 50 operations
May 2017 Essau 50 operations
May 2017 Soma 50 operations
November 2017 Farafenni 50 operations
January 2018 Farafenni 50 operations
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