COMMUNITIES

The ESCRS continues to support its charities Oxfam and ORBIS with two projects that will empower local communities. The initiative, first launched by the then ESCRS president Jose Guell in 2011 has been continued during the presidency of Dr Peter Barry. Thanks to the generosity of ESCRS members and delegates attending the ESCRS congresses and winter meetings, more than €70,000 has been donated by the society to ORBIS and Oxfam.

ORBIS Gondar Project

ORBIS has worked in Ethiopia for over 14 years to implement a model for comprehensive rural eye care. Since 2011 ESCRS has supported ORBIS to develop a Paediatric Eye-Care Centre in Gondar Hospital. ESCRS funds have gone towards training resident ophthalmologists in sub-specialties such as paediatric cataract and glaucoma in order to be able to treat a wide range of paediatric eye conditions. The latest installment of this training took place in October 2012 when ORBIS conducted a week-long hospital-based programme in Gondar. In a video which was recently posted on the ESCRS website, ORBIS volunteer and paediatric ophthalmologist Dr Donny Suh can be seen giving hands-on training to Dr Mulusew Asferaw, the head of the Paediatric Eye Care Unit at Gondar.

Dr Suh said that the trainees in Ethiopia would have access to videos and the Internet, but this did not compare with the trainees and their teachers working together in a close hands-on setting. On the first day of training, Dr Suh screened and selected some of the complicated cases that Dr Asferaw would not be able to manage himself. On the following four days, Dr Asferaw carried out surgeries on the patients under Dr Suh’s supervision. Dr Asferaw said hands-on training was very important. “It is not theoretical, it is a skill transfer and I can observe, assist and carry out some of the steps.” The video, which is three minutes long, was photographed and produced by Geoff Oliver Bugbee for ORBIS International. The ORBIS video is available at: http:// www.escrs.org/charitable-donations/newsupdates.asp.

Oxfam Congo Project

ESCRS has helped to prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera, trachoma and conjunctivitis in the North Kivu area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by donating to an Oxfam project which is developing new sustainable water supplies and empowering communities to manage these resources through training schemes and public health initiatives.

The devastating impact of 20 years of conflict between armed rebels and the government in DRC is largely forgotten by the world. The brutal conflict has claimed the lives of millions and has caused countless mass movements of people within the country and across its borders. The lives of these displaced people have been impacted on an ongoing basis – children have been unable to attend school, food shortages and malnutrition are widespread and healthcare, water and sanitation facilities are widely insufficient leading to many deaths from preventable diseases.

Families living in safer areas take in large numbers of people, placing additional strain on their own resources. The coverage of clean drinking water in the DRC is estimated at 24 per cent, while sanitation is estimated at only nine per cent. Thanks to ESCRS, Oxfam and its WASH partners can improve the health of women, men and children forced to flee their homes to live in camps, and of host communities with limited access to clean drinking water.

Oxfam Ireland’s chief executive Jim Clarken said: “The generosity of ESCRS members and the ESCRS Board has helped to deliver real change to the communities in the Lubero and Beni territories of North Kivu. By supporting Oxfam and our partners in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion (WASH) project, ESCRS has provided effective and sustainable water sources for communities affected by conflict”.

* To support ORBIS and Oxfam visit www.escrs.org/charitable-donations

Tags: ESCRS