More glasses measured for Malawi

At yesterday's Goggle Works party, a brilliant team measured, labelled and packaged 235 glasses ready for shipping to Malawi. Lots more glasses were sorted and washed and made ready for the next measuring session. Also, the team checked and packaged many empty glasses cases; good strong cases are highly valued where most people do manual work and homes are too small for cupboards and drawers.

Thanks everyone for your hard work!

News from Livingstonia clinic

We've just received a newsletter from the David Gordon Memorial Hospital in Livingstonia, which includes a short update on the recently-established Eye Department:
"46 patients were registered in the department over the quarter ending December [2011]. This number does not include those that came for eye testing and change of lenses. The most common cases are: allergic conjunctivitis, cataract and corneal ulcer."

Next Goggle Works Party is on Friday 24 February

It's high time for another Goggle Works party, owing to the generous and thoughtful people in and around Colchester. They have donated loads more second-hand glasses to sort, measure and label, before being sent off to Malawi. So the next party is on Friday 24 February, starting at 7.30pm, in Colchester. As usual, there'll be plenty of exotic nibbles, cakes and coffee to keep everyone working hard. Email Sue for more info.

A new record Goggleworks evening!

On Friday 25 November a brilliant team gathered for another session of glasses measuring. With focimeter (a device that measures the strength of lenses) training from Jill Paxton, the team was able to process a new record of 261 pairs of glasses in one evening. Thanks to everyone who came, and to support partners Colchester Vineyard.

250 glasses measured in one evening!

Many thanks to all those who gathered on Friday 21 October to sort and measure glasses for Africa. We measured 250 – a new record for one evening! These will soon be sent on their way for dispensing to needy people in northern Malawi. Here are a few of the team...

World Sight Day 2011

Today is designated World Sight Day by VISION 2020: The Right to Sight. See also this related BBC article, with some cracking photos by Sophie Gerrard.

September trip postponed

A team had planned to go to Malawi in September, to do clinical work and to support some schools. Regrettably, however, we've had to delay the trip. Following a diplomatic row involving the UK government, some unrest in the country, together with a serious shortage of fuel, the advice is that the time is not right. Everybody's really disappointed – both here and in Malawi. We trust, however, that things will settle down and we can resume with our plans. In the meantime, we continue to collect glasses and other useful equipment, and send it all through the Raven Trust.

Riots in Malawi 20 July

Regret to hear that there are major riots in Malawi today, in Mzuzu, Lilongwe and Blantyre. Please pray for peace and a just outcome. Also please pray for Focus on Malawi colleagues and contacts around Malawi. See BBC page on Malawi situation.

Consolidating for the future

As we've emphasized elsewhere in this blog, our intention is to establish eye services that will be staffed, financed and organized locally. Fully achieving this objective may still be a way off yet, but we continue to work at laying the foundations.

Recently, we were able to visit Malawi again and do some more foundation laying. We found a source for medications in the South of the country and are working out a way to get reliable and regular deliveries to Livingstonia. We have made contact with a government hospital in Mzuzu with a view to organizing visiting eye clinics for rural people unable to afford visits to the city. We've also joined a working group that has started co-ordinating the sponsors and supporters of the Ekwendeni School for the Blind.

And taken together with the home-grown and trained ophthalmic clinical officer now in place in Livingstonia, there is good cause for believing that progress towards a sustainable future is being made!

Angella completes clinical officer training

Many congratulations to Angella, who has now successfully completed her clinical officer training at Lilongwe, and is back home in Livingstonia, ready to start work at the new eye clinic there. Last week we visited her to celebrate and presented the clinic with the portable slit lamp donated by The MacNair Medical Mission Trust (see related post).

Ekwendeni Blind School children receive glasses, and more

The glasses dispensed at Essex County Hospital, for the children of the Ekwendeni School for the blind (see previous post), were delivered and fitted when we visited last week. And testing showed that all the children receiving the glasses had considerably improved vision. During the visit, the gifts of clothing sent by St Stephen's, Colchester, were handed out – and eagerly received.

Glasses dispensed for children at blind school

Last year, a number of children at the Ekwendeni Blind School were taken to the nearest main town (Mzuzu) to have their sight measured. They received prescriptons for glasses but none could afford to have them made. And, unfortunately, none of the second-hand glasses sent out to the nearby mission clinic were capable of dealing with the extreme visual impairment suffered by these children. Consequently, a list of the names and prescriptions were later emailed to Focus on Malawi in Colchester. The optometry department at Essex County Hospital agreed to make the required glasses at cost price to Focus on Malawi. The picture shows Dr Annette Grounds, with a box of the finished glasses. They will be taken to the children by Sue Kevan, who is visiting Malawi in April. Thank you Annette!

Goggle Works: 222 pairs of glasses measured!

On 15 April, twelve people gathered for (probably) the first-ever glasses measuring party on the planet! A few focimeter experts were in attendance to train the others and quite soon everyone was measuring and labelling. But it wasn't all hard work: we watched footage of life in Malawi, and work at the Ekwendeni and Livingstonia eye clinics, fortified by exotic nibbles, with wine and coffee. At the end of the evening, 222 pairs of glasses had been measured and labelled. Thanks to everyone who came and to Caroline and family for hosting.

Thanks from Ekwendeni

We've just received this message from Logen Kumwenda, teacher in charge at the Ekwendeni Blind School, following the recent arrival of the latest container: "I would like to acknowledge receipt of assorted clothes, childrens shoes, suncreams etc for the visually impaired today. I am very grateful for the donation and I am planning to share the items to the children anytime possibly on Saturday this week. You have really sent us good clothes that match with the ages and sizes of the chuildren who are here at school. There are 56 children now and these clothes will at least reach everyone. Greet all the congregation of St. Stephens Church in Colchester for their big and wonderul donation. May God bless them. We are again putting into prayers all those who contributed towards the donations. Thank you very much.
Logen."

More stuff for the Blind School

Thanks again to the lovely people at St Stephen's, Colchester, who have collected more clothes for Ekwendeni Blind School. These will soon be on their way to Africa.

Spec-tacular Christmas Tree

The people of Dunoon, Argyll, have been donating their old glasses to Focus on Malawi this Christmas. Here's a post all about it at The Raven Trust website

Some pics from the Blind School

This child is being trained on a Braille typewriter in the school's resource room.

The school has been quite successful in finding donors in the West to help with equipment, but it's a struggle to solve accommodation problems. Here's a view of the boys' dorm, which Logen hopes to extend and refurbish soon.

Successful Blind School outreach – report

Logen Kumwenda, the teacher-in-charge at the Ekwendeni Blind School, has reported on the outreach undertaken by the school in August 2010. They visited over nine zones in the Mzimba North educational district, finding 100 children with problems. 34 were visually impaired, 34 had hearing impairement, 16 had learning difficulties, nine had physical disabilities, two were deaf and blind, and five were multi-handicapped.

Of the 34 visually impaired, 27 had low vision, and seven were totally blind. The totally blind children were admitted to the school, while the impaired ones were sent to Mzuzu Central Eye Clinic for further assessment. Tests are free here, but they charge for treatment and/or glasses, and the prices are far too high for most families to afford. Since then, we've received a list of the children's prescriptions, so we'll be hunting through the donated second-hand glasses for good matches, and they'll despatched to Ekwendeni in one of the conatiners regularly sent by The Raven Trust.

This is a long processs, so you can see why we're keen to find and train staff to maintain permanent clinics.

Ekwendeni Blind School outreach gets government support

We've recently had this encouraging report from Logen Kumwenda, teacher-in-charge at the Ekwendeni Blind School:

"Glad to inform you that because of your initiatives and support towards itinerary visits to various areas in the district which we had done twice, the [Malawi government] District Education Manager (DEM) has now funded and organised for these visits. We are scheduled start on 17th and finish on 20th August 2010 covering 12 educational zones.

I really thank you the support you had been giving which has made the DEM appreciate our job and has seen the fruits of our visits now. I really thank you for that. I have hope that next time you will do again. The resource room has new furniture now at least all children in the room will sit comfortably. Thank you and all those who donated towards that...

How are people in Colchester? How busy are you now? We have closed schools for a month holiday till September. With glasses, someone assisted us from Dunfermline in UK where I went with Mr Chihana. But after the DEMs exercise, I have hope that we will have new pupils who might require glasses. Say hie to everyone. LOGEN"

From dishwasher to Malawi

The first thing we do with donated glasses is clean them up, and the best place to do that is in the dishwasher! They come out sparkling and free from the usual greasy accretions that accompany old glasses. Next job: measuring and sorting them.

Ophthalmic training report

Angella, who is currently doing her training to become an ophthalmic clinical officer (posts passim), reports that she has passed her first semester exams. Congratulations Angella!

Recently, her laptop, which she uses in connection with her studies (and which was donated by the York scouts, through whom the Livingstonia clinic was financed – see post) has stopped working. Thanks go to Keith Feay, Raven Trust volunteer and x-ray machine expert, who has provided Angella with a replacement, while repairs are in progress.

Tea and Chat ladies – Rattray, Scotland

Out of the blue, we've been contacted by Fionna Black, on behalf of a group of four ladies involved in outreach from Rattray Parish Church, who call themselves "Tea & Chat", providing friendship in a local sheltered housing complex.

They do not fund-raise, but everyone pays 50p for the Tea & Chat afternoon (some pay more). This year, the group wishes its donation (£260) to go to the work of the eye clinic in Livingstonia (three of the group are visually impaired, so they have particular sympathies in this area).

Thank you so much Fionna and the Tea and Chat group. This donation will go towards purchasing some specialised equipment for the Livingstonia eye clinic.

Blind School fundraising: thank you St Stephen's, Colchester

Following the fundraising curry night organised by St Stephen's, New Town, Colchester (see previous post), Focus on Malawi received a total of £243, some of it Gift Aided (this was just half of the sum raised, the other amount went to the Korban Project, which supports young women at risk, in Colchester).

The Blind School was personally presented with the money this week, and the teacher in charge, Logen Kumwenda, has already emailed us with his thanks. The money will be used to buy food, to transport some pupils to a hospital for eye operations, and to upgrade teaching equipment.

Thanks go the 100 people who attended, to the organiser Chris Liddamore, the cooks, and other helpers at St Stephens. And not forgetting the Colchester Tribal Dancers who entertained everyone at no charge!

Blind School outreach support needed

On our visits to Ekwendeni, we have always spent time at the blind school, assessing pupils to help them enhance and use what vision they have. If it weren't for the amazing work that Logen Kumwenda (teacher-in-charge) and his small team are doing, many of these kids would have no life at all. But Logen is aware of how many more children there are out in the country who would have no future – without the help the school provides. He's asking us to support a further Parent Counselling and Support programme, which will result in new, very poor children coming into the school. They'll need clothes, school equipment, as well as things for play and hobby activities. Food is often in short supply and they would appreciate having more buying power. There is also the need to get some children to the Central Hospital, where they can have simple operations to improve sight and be treated for disease.

With perfect timing, the good people of St Stephen's, Colchester, have just offered to do a fund-raising meal for FoM (it's on Saturday 13 March, for more details email me), so we've agreed to allocate all the proceeds to the Blind School. A great start to helping make Logen's plans come to fruition!

Normal play – and improvised music-making – is encouraged at the Blind School.

Angella gets course equipment

While John Challis (The Raven Trust) was recently in Malawi, he met up with Angella (who is training for her ophthalmic clinical officer exams). Angella reported that her course was going well. At their meeting, John handed over to her a digital camera and an internet access dongle for her PC. These have been funded by Focus on Malawi to support Angella in her studies.

Portable slit lamp donated

Shin Nippon XL-1 LED slit lamp.

One of the most important tools in optometry and ophthalmology is the slit lamp, a microscope designed for examining the eye. Usually, equipment like this is fixed to a table in a clinic and that's where it stays – so when we do remote, ad hoc clinics we have to rig up something portable. On our last visit, Jim Seymour was lent a portable slit-lamp by Paul Tyler, of Tyler Opticians, Tiptree, and he made an adjustable carriage to hold it steady. However, we are now going to be spoilt, because we have recently received a purpose-built, brand-new, portable LED slit lamp! This has been donated by The MacNair Medical Mission Trust, a charity formed by Dr Duncan MacNair, who spent many years working in Livingstonia. Dr McNair tells us that a sum of money was made available to the trust and he felt that this should be spent on equipment for the eye-care work at Livingstonia. This slit lamp will help extend the hospital's eye-care outreach work enormously. Thank you Dr McNair!

Angella is accepted for her training course

Angella is a medical assistant and has been working with our visiting teams for the past couple of years, helping to develop the eye-care work at the David Gordon Memorial Hospital in Livingstonia. Now, after much anticipation, we've had official confirmation that she has been accepted on a training course to become an Ophthalmic Clinical Officer. The course is being run by the College of Health Sciences in Lilongwe and it will last for eighteen months. The cost of the course has been met by Focus on Malawi supporters. When Angella has qualified, she will be able to test patients for glasses, identify major eye diseases, treat some and refer others to relevant hospitals. The pic below shows Angella (right), with her husband and son.

Constructing a home-made carriage for a portable slit lamp

Mobile clinics are necessary to reach remote communities, but this can often mean leaving behind bulky, but desirable equipment, such as the major slit-lamp microscope – universally used to examine eyes to diagnose diseases such as trachoma, pterygium (common in tropical Africa) and glaucoma.

For your information, here is a brief account of a portable set-up I produced for the 2009 trip, where we knew we would be working in a number of very remote sites.

There are excellent portable slit-lamps on the market which generally have most the capabilties of their 'fixed' consulting room cousins but when hand-held they inevitably wobble a bit and the optics magnify the wobbles quite nicely making the equipment less satisfactory. The portables also generally weigh about a kilogramme which can be rather wearing during a day's work so I set about designing a carriage for the Kowa slit-lamp to be light (needs to go in our hold baggage), simple (I'm not an engineer), usable on a standard height-adjustable hospital table and as cheap as possible. It has two horizontal pieces of hardboard separated by vertical telescopic columns made of PVC pipe bought from a hardware store. The Kowa was attached to the centre of the top board with a bolt, and the weight of the instrument countered with a springloaded toilet paper roll holder. Happily, the friction between the pipes was enough to allow the slit-lamp to move
vertically over a range of about 25 mm which was sufficient for most (if not all) patients. The traditional screw-jack height adjuster was unnecessary. For horizontal postioning the bottom board simply slides along the table. For stability the bottom board needed to be larger than the top one. It was convenient to place the battery pack (from a model shop) on the lower board.



The other half of the story was the patient's chin rest. Two G clamps were attached to the edge of the hospital table separated horizontally by about 120mm. Each clamp was attached to a vertical strut about 40 cm high made of L section extruded alluminium. The struts were attached to the G clamps with automotive hosegrips- crude but effective. Each strut had a short length of PVC pipe sliding on it, the opposite sides linked by the chin rest which was made of bent mild steel. Each strut was gripped by a powerful Bulldog clip upon which the sliding tubes rested; the clips could be moved vertically for height adjustment. There was no brow rest.

The components were attached to each other with small bolts, pieces of bent mild steel and tape, assembled on site with a multipurpose tool.

Planned improvements:-
Swivelling struts on the lower board to increase it's effective area. Quick releases on the telescopic columns so the carriage can be dismantled swiftly. Tapped studding to screw into the G clamps- more stable and eliminate hosegrips.

See a few pictures of construction and in use.

Jim Seymour BSc optometrist

We're back but the work goes on...

We're safely back! Thanks to all who have been supporting and praying. Above is the new eye-clinic at Livingstonia which was completed and opened while we were there. Below is a pic of trainee Angella doing an eye examination.

Heading back home

On Thursday last week, the team departed from Livingstonia and headed south to Ekwendeni for a brief stop to catch up with people there. Caroline, Jim and Sue fly back today, via Johannesburg.