My experience training nurses to restore sight in Vietnam
Hello,
My
name is Angeline and I’m a Senior Staff Nurse at Moorfields Eye
Hospital in London. I’m also a medical volunteer with Orbis. In the past
year I’ve helped train nurses in Cameroon, Bangladesh and Vietnam and
seen first-hand just how important this work is.
I’m emailing to
tell you a bit about my time in Vietnam with the Orbis Flying Eye
Hospital in May last year. Thanks to the donations of kind Orbis
supporters, I was able to train medical staff and assist in surgeries
that gave children the gift of sight.
This
work is badly needed and there is still more to do. There are more than
23,000 blind children in Vietnam, and many more adults with a wide
range of eye conditions.
I
vividly remember how crowded the waiting room was at Can Tho Eye
Hospital – so many people, all wanting to be helped. When I saw that, I
really understood just how important it is to train more nurses and
other medical staff.
You would have been inspired by the
enthusiasm of the trainee nurses I met in Vietnam. As I taught sessions
with them aboard the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, it was amazing to watch
them hone their skills so they can give their patients the best possible
care.
I do what I do because I firmly believe that more eye
care personnel serving poorer, rural communities across the world means
more is being done to prevent avoidable blindness. You can continue to
make this happen.
Because much of it is avoidable. You could
help so many children get access to quality eye care and have their
sight restored. Without this, many could be left blind for the rest of
their lives. It’s so tragic. There’s one little boy in Vietnam called
Tam who’s a perfect example of the difference you can make, but I’ll
tell you about him in another email.
For
now, I just wanted to thank you for helping to give more people the
gift of sight. It really is such a life-changing thing, to open
someone’s eyes so that they are no longer consigned to a life of
darkness.
Thank you for reading my email. I’ll
write to you again in a few days, with the story of Tam – the little
Vietnamese boy whose life has been changed by cataract surgery. It’s a
wonderful story and I know you’ll enjoy reading about him.
Yours sincerely,
Angeline Chaipa
Senior Staff Nurse and Orbis Medical Volunteer
PS.
Operation Sight is Orbis UK’s ambitious campaign against avoidable
blindness. There are still a few more months to go, with some very
ambitious targets to meet before the end of 2018. Anything you can give
right now will help give more people the gift of sight.