Millions of people across sub-Saharan Africa suffer from preventable and curable forms of blindness. Too often those patients lack access to qualified eye care specialists. MCI’s partner, the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP), has set out to change that, with the aim of helping unserved blind people and making eye care more accessible.

HCP’s contributions to both the Millennium Cities and Millennium Villages have been tremendous. HCP has worked in Blantyre, Malawi, Kaduna, Nigeria, Kisumu, Kenya, and Kumasi, Ghana, and has returned repeatedly to the Millennium City of Mekelle, Ethiopia, and the nearby Koraro Millennium Village cluster, performing several thousand cataract repair surgeries and corneal transplants.

Equally impressive is HCP’s commitment to working with Mekelle’s Quiha Zonal Hospital and the Tigray Regional Health Bureau to expand access to modern eye care. HCP has made significant investments in training and infrastructure and has just recently created a Regional Center for Eye Care Excellence, Quiha Eye Hospital. Since its opening in late 2011, Quiha Eye Hospital has linked with the Eye Bank of Ethiopia, and lead ophthalmologist Dr. Tilahun Kiros is already performing more corneal transplants. HCP is continuing to support the hospital’s nurses training program with 10 new ophthalmic nursing students and is collaborating with the RAND Corporation and the hospital to conduct a study of the economic impacts of blindness in the Woldiya District. HCP’s sustained effort is gaining recognition: Quiha Eye Hospital was recently named a Hilton Foundation finalist for a large grant to expand eye care excellence in Africa.

Of course, HCP has continued to conduct surgeries and treat patients in the region. In January a team of ophthalmologists completed an outreach camp with 450 cataract surgeries at Quiha Eye Hospital, and another HCP-sponsored camp is taking place this month, featuring a visiting doctor who will offer training in phacoemulsification surgery. MCI is also excited about HCP’s plans to organize a race and cultural exchange between elite Ethiopian and American runners in Fall 2012.

MCI is grateful for HCP’s continuing support, and especially for all that the organization and its teams of visiting ophthalmologists are doing both to treat preventable and curable forms of blindness and to train local doctors to do the same. We look forward to collaborating with HCP on all that is planned for 2012 and beyond, to help restore sight to many residents across Mekelle and the Tigray Region.