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Africa's our neighbour. When it burns, we smell the smoke. It stings our eyes, it sears our conscience, but maybe not as much as it should...Bono
Our team has arrived safely back from Ethiopia and were very excited to report that since 2009 and the arrival of the Iasis bus, 3000 eye surgeries have been successfully completed and as a result 3000 people have had their eyesight restored!
Before eye surgery
After eye surgery
Before eye surgery
After eye surgery
Iasis have made two visits to Haiti since the earthquake in January 2010. A third visit is planned in the new year. We are working alongside Haitian and American doctors and nurses, bringing much needed medical assistance to the now cholera struck Cite Soleil-the largest slum in Port au Prince. We need help to raise the funds necessary for urgent medical supplies.
The Iasis eye team, led by optometrist and Iasis trustee, Marek Karas, have just returned form a trip to the Tirgu Frumos blind school in Romania soon. This ongoing project ensures that children with low vision are equipped with glasses and magnifiers to optimize their vision, to enable them to learn to read and write.
Watch video footage from our latest trip, featuring some of the first patients who could reach the hospital thanks to the new bus purchased in 2009. Last year was spent fundraising to purchase a bus for Ethiopia. Thanks to the generosity of friends, family and supporters we launched the bus in November…..Special thanks to The Roddick Foundation for their ongoing support and fabulous donation of £10,000. Also a special mention to Dr Colin Tourle, who has raised the other half of the money by giving numerous talks. Thanks to everyone who invited Colin to speak, and for your contributions towards the bus.
Ethiopia, situated in the Horn of Africa, is the third-most populous nation in Africa. It’s heralded as the cradle of humanity since its human history dates back almost five million years. Ethiopia is also the only country in Africa that was never colonized and therefore is unique in its history of continuous sovereignty.
Traditionally, Ethiopia’s economy was based on subsistence agriculture, with an aristocracy that consumed the surplus. For a number of reasons, the peasants lacked the incentive to improve production or to store the excess harvest, and so they existed from harvest to harvest, vulnerable to crop failures. Despite the extensive modernization of Ethiopia over the last century, the overwhelming majority of its 90 million population are still peasants who continue to live in the same way.
In Northern Ethiopia, the failure of the short rains together with the insurgency of the Tigrayan People’s…