This was my second visit to Kenya; the first being in 2005 when we helped set up a Primary Healthcare course and assisted with a free eye clinic with an Optician from the UK.

This time we were doing a similar thing but the Optician was a Kenyan, whose name was James. He actually was also a retired surgeon. Accompanying us too were Christine, a retired Administrator and Elizabeth, a Practice nurse from Great Amwell. Christine worked in the Optician's room whilst Liz assisted me on a part time basis. There were several young Kenyans on hand to assist with translations. 

The first day at the eye clinic was pretty steady, patients walking various distances from Runyenjes and Embu to have a free eye test and if needed a free pair of glasses. But then of course word got out on the Kenyan grapevine that we were carrying out these free eye tests and boy the next day they were queuing from 7.30 in the morning!

Thankfully the weather picked up too, because the first two weeks in August in Kenya had been pretty cold, but we were told that it could be cool at this time of year. They also had had a reasonable amount of rain which was unusual. We started the day at roughly 8:00am to 8.30 and finished at 5:00pm. The majority of the patients we saw were either Cataract or Glaucoma patients but we did have to carry out a minor operation or should I say the Optician did with the help of Christine. The patient had managed to get a husk of a small plant (unsure what plant) imbedded in his eye which the Optician managed to remove thankfully, and I should think the patient was pretty glad too.

We bought the glasses through donations to Peacemakers. The total number of patients seen were 750, 622 of these received glasses. Patients needing Cataract operations came to 25 and 6 Glaucoma. So I think the majority of patients went away happy. The good news is that we have been able to underwrite all of the Glaucoma and 6 of the Cataract operations.

The Snellen Eye Charts were provided free of charge by Vision Aid International.