Tanzania Expedition

Tanzania, Karatu

In September 2022, we established contact with Lutheran Hospital Karatu, Tanzania, to investigate the possibilities of setting up an eye clinic here where, in a huge catchment area of over 300,000 people, there is no permanent eye clinic and the nearest eye center is 250 km away. In January and February 2023, we installed instruments collected from Danish Ophthalmologists and refurbished at MMC optical, Denmark. Despite long shipping times and difficult import conditions, most of the instruments arrived just in time for our first operation’s mission on Easter 2023.

While others were on Easter vacation, we used the days to install instruments, screen over 150 people and treat those who required medical treatment, measure and give out glasses to the many with unmet need for optics and then select those who needed eye surgery. The glasses are pure green recycling, donated by patients who have become spectacle-free at Euroeyes.

In collaboration with ophthalmologists, nurses, opticians and assistants from KCMC, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, Moshi, we thus had a busy eye clinic for 2 weeks. Despite the rainy season when everyone is busy sowing and preparing the fields and transport is often difficult due to heavy rainfall, many came to the hospital for help. Approximately 100 people thus received glasses, many received outpatient treatment with medication and a large number underwent surgery. Those who come for surgery are blind, they can only see light or can hardly count fingers at a short distance. When they leave us again, they can see so most meet the requirements for a driver’s license, again, “small miracles”.