Boa Vista and COB (Centro Oftalmológico de Benguela) in Benguela 

Outreach camp Dôndi 7 to 15 November 

Chrisjan and Anja Dees and Lee Craggs 

It was great to have Lee join us for the first part of this trip. Lee is a HCA/technical ophthalmic assistant in the Darlington eye department where Chrisjan works from time to time as a locum consultant to cover holidays etc. Lee became very interested as soon as he heard about Boa Vista and our trips, and was really keen to have a look for himself and get stuck in to support. One of the very useful things he was able to contribute at this time was to show his colleagues at Boa Vista how to use an iCare tonometer. They were delighted with this, and we were able to let them keep the instrument. 

Anja, Efraim, Chrisjan and Lee boarding the MAF Cessna Caravan for Huambo/Dondi 

The day after arrival in Benguela we set off for an eye camp in Dondi near Huambo in the central Angolan highlands. Here are the 3 UK visitors with Efraim, who is charge nurse in the eye theatre in Boa Vista. We are very glad he came to help! He did much of the outpatient work and all the administration and all the contact with the receiving team and local officials. 

Kambale here is the other pillar of our outreach work. On eye camps, he is theatre nurse/technician/anaesthetist. He is so resourceful, motivated and hard-working, yet very unassuming. Here he is cutting bandages to size before they go into the steriliser. He gets all the equipment ready and the supplies neatly in stacks: 

Everything that’s needed for the operation fits on this small table. The only two complex pieces of kit are the microscope and the steriliser. We operated on 12 cataract patients every day we were in Dôndi 

This lady is blind from cataract in both eyes, and her daughter leads her around with a stick. We operated on her during the week and it was so lovely to see her walk around unaided the next day! 

Some very happy patients the day after cataract surgery celebrating with their friends and relatives. The joy and surprise when these people experience sight again after years of blindness are deeply moving and humbling every time, a privilege to be a witness of! 

Relatives camp out around the clinic and prepare food for themselves and for the patients 

These lovely ladies from the local church we coordinate the eye camp with came to cook their wonderful food for the visiting team, and were very keen that I should take photographs of them. Thank you so much for feeding us!! 

Back in Boa Vista, a busy day ahead 

Dr Marleni talking to one of the patients 

Back in Benguela, as well as working in Boa Vista, we met up with the residents and senior doctors at COB (Centro Oftalmológico de Benguela), the government run eye department in the city, to give a couple of lectures on retinal disease. 

Dr Ernesto, the clinical director 

…with one of the senior doctors from Cuba and one of the residents…