MACHO 15

Eye Department KCMC Newsletter

Issue 1 Volume 5 Serial 15                                                                   30 March 2015

Orbis International and the Flying Eye Hospital

Orbis International is an American NGO dedicated to eye healthcare improvement world wide. It was founded in 1980 and by 1982 they had started its flagship programme, the Flying Eye Hospital. Orbis is also dedicated to Human Resource Development for Eye Health through its Hospital Based Programmes.

In Ethiopia where Orbis had been quite active, they have managed to set up an “Eye Bank”. An Eye Bank is essentially a Cornea Bank, whereby organs harvested from donors are placed until they can be used by recipients. This is a big achievement since most of Sub-Saharan African countries have not being able to cross this important threshold of domestic harvesting and transplantation of human organs. Into play came Orbis’s ability to lobby and advocate at the level of higher echelons of decision making.

The Flying Eye Hospital is a Mc Donnel Douglas DC-10 wide body jet on loan from Fedex that is fitted with an Operating Theatre, an Auditorium and other supporting facilities to enable observers to see in real time eye surgeries being performed, and interact with the surgeons by hearing the verbal narrative from the surgeon and be able to ask questions.

The Flying Eye Hospital had visited Tanzania twice, in 2003 and 2008. During the 2008 visit I was able to participate in the activities offered which included: Continuous Curveliniar Capsulorrhexis Simulation, Phacoemulsification Cataract Extraction on Animal Eye in a Wet Laboratory, Direct Observation of Lens Washout using the Vitrector Probe and Anterior Vitrectomy using Scissors.

In September 2016, the Flying Eye Hospital will be coming to Kilimanjaro International Airport for 2 weeks, this will be opportunity for all tiers of eye cadres to observe different types of surgeries and ask questions directly to the surgeon. Parallel to this, Orbis will be organizing Biomedical Workshop for biomedical technicians from Tanzania and COECSA countries.

There will also be workshops for ophthalmic nurses and anaesthetists. There workshops aim at sharing the current best practices and offer opportunity to learning new things. However it is the ophthalmologists, ophthalmology residents and the assistant medical officers ophthalmology who will benefit most from both the Flying Eye Hospital and the Hospital Based Programme, where know-how will be transferred from experts in their fields to the participants. We expect involvement from all the COECSA countries.

George Kabona, Gilbert Mrema, William Makupa and Honest Maro on the landing of the Orbis International DC-10 Hospital Plan in Dar es Salaam July 2008.

Celestine Habyakare, Ahmed Attas, William Makupa and the late Hemed Kilima at the landing of Orbis International DC-10 Hospital Plane in Dar es Salaam July 2008

Editor: W. Makupa, Eye Department KCMC, P.O.Box 3010 Moshi – Tanzania

Tel: +255 784 332 667 Fax: +255 27 275 4381 Email: makupauw@yahoo.com