Download Activity report 2009/2010 (PDF)
Daruka, 60, was blind from cataract for three years. Now she can see again and support her family.
Sudan
Sustainable eye care programmes
The Sudan is slowly recovering from decades of political crisis and civil war. Developing medical infrastructure and a sustainable education system is crucial for the future of this vast country. The exceptionally high blindness rate of 3.2 % in Southern Sudan calls for action. LIGHT FOR THE WORLD organizes ophthalmologic relief flights, helping thousands of people in remote areas to gain access to eye care. Additionally, we help build permanent eye clinics to ensure long-term care for blind and visually impaired persons and help combat blinding diseases like trachoma. At the LIGHT FOR THE WORLD supported eye clinic Mapuordit, with a catchment area of 1.8 Million people, an additional ophthalmologic nurse was hired 2009. In Yei, a town in the far South of the country, LIGHT FOR THE WORLD is involved in establishing an eye department.
In the last year 1,208 cataract surgeries have been performed in clinics and on outreaches in Southern Sudan in programmes supported by LIGHT FOR THE WORLD.
Inclusive education and rehabilitation
Rebuilding the education system is a great challenge, involving both organisation and human resources. LIGHT FOR THE WORLD takes care that children with disabilities are not forgotten in the process. Together with our strategic partner, the Dutch organisation DARK & LIGHT, we support a programme ensuring that everybody has access to education.
Experiences in inclusive education have shown that there is great need for rehabilitation of persons with disabilities as well as of political support. In the year 2010, LIGHT FOR THE WORLD will continue to organise support for persons with disabilities and explore the possibilities of installing a Community Based Rehabilitation pilot programme.
Daruka - back into the light
Daruka lives with her daughter and grandchildren in the South East of Sudan. Three years ago the lost her sight. Confined to her hut she spends her days in darkness until one day a relative tells her that she too had been blind and regained sight after she was treated at a LIGHT FOR THE WORLD eye camp. Hope grows in Daruka's heart when she hears that an eye care outreach is again on its way to the region. She walks for six days to get to the LIGHT FOR THE WORLD eye camp. The doctor examines Daruka and tells her that she suffers from cataract and can be cured. Daruka undergoes surgery the next day. When she lifts her eye patch she is really happy: she can see again!
Daruka walks back to her family, happy that she does not need a guide anymore. She plans to cultivate her little field again and grow vegetables to support her family.