The Outreach

Most days we travel to remote villages and set up our eye clinic. These outreaches are coordinated by the local eye care staff based out of the Crystal Eye Clinic in Accra, and patients are recruited in towns by trained local healthcare workers. Our coming to town is a big deal. The chiefs and elders (not the Mormon kind) come in their cloth, school is let out early (usually due to the uncontrollable ferver among the students with a bunch of "obruni"), and shops close so that workers can get their eyes checked.

Here is what a day typically looks like:

We leave Accra or another overnight location around 7:30 AM.

We all crowd into the van and travel along some rollah-costah roads for 2-4 hours.

We arrive at the village site (usually a church) that has 100-150 people waiting inside.

One of the local staff members gives a presentation on general eye health and the loigistics of the outreach.

We, the volunteers, set up the medication dispensing table and visual acuity station.

Following registration, the patients' visual acuity is assessed.

Next, the optometrist or ophthalmic nurse examines the eyes. Those that have mature cataracts, pterygium, or other significant eye issues are referred for surgery provided free of charge (thanks to the generous contributions of many of you--on behalf of hundreds of patients: madassi (thank you!)).

Patients move to the medication station where they receive drops and/or glasses as prescribed by the eye doctor.

My research involves patients referred for surgery; those that qualify are interviewed with the help of a local interpretor. So far, I have interviewed more than 120 cataract cases.

After nearly 200 patients and 7 hours of work, we clean up.

If we are lucky, the local village prepares a meal for us, otherwise we stop at a chop bar on our way home. This is banku and mudfish--it is a fermented corn and casava dough that you eat with your hands. Yum!

One of my favorite things about outreaches is seeing so many children. They are always timid at first (for many, they have never seen an "obruni" before). With time, they gradually encroach until they are holding your hand or staring over your shoulder.