The Sunday Mail
The people of Chivi in Masvingo do not have to look far when it comes to philathropic pursuits.
Under the leadership of one of its sons, Zimbabwe National Army Major Manasa Mahapa, they have successfully mobilised resources to run an eye clinic for the elderly and vulnerable at Chivi District Hospital from September 22 to 23, 2016.
“We are targeting to operate at least 100 old and vulnerable people for eye cataract in Chivi for free,” said Major Mahapa.
“We agreed amongst the district leadership that this is the area we grew up in, these old people are the ones who looked after us and sent us to school, the little we could do is to mobilise assistance where they need it.”
Major Mahapa approached eye specialist Dr Archie Kufa to assist with mobilisation of the required resources.
Duly, Dr Kufa managed to source medicine, equipment, infrastructure and personnel from Government, Zimbabwe Council for the Blind, the Hindu Society, Metro Peech and other well-wishers.
“It will be myself and one other doctor doing the operations with the help of nurses from School of Nursing, the army and the host hospital,” Dr Kufa explained.
“We are working with a number of partners that include Council for the Blind, Hindu Society, the Ministry of Health and a host of other well-wishers who prefer not to be mentioned. One of these organisations has even pledged to supply food to the hospital for the period of the operations.”
He gave credit to the Hindu society which he said had donated much of the required sundries.
Dr Kufa said a lot of eye conditions in rural areas can be surgically corrected but vulnerable people, especially the old, cannot afford to pay for the medical bills.
Acting district medical officer in Chivi, Dr William Mawoko, expressed pleasure at the campaign, adding that the district hospital is happy to assist.
“The operations will be held at the hospital and we will be assisting with staff, theatre rooms and other medical equipment needed. A hundred people is not a big number for our capacity and we are quite happy to assist in community programmes like this.”
Council for the Blind administrative secretary, Mrs Felicitas Matilamanja, said there is a huge cataract surgery backlog in the country, adding that there is an urgent need to act.
“In this campaign we are assisting with administrative issues,” she said.
“We are helping with co-ordination between the Hindu Society, who is the donor, and the team that will actually carry out the operations.
“There is a huge cataract backlog and there is need for us to act quickly to reduce it. So it is our duty to go wherever we are called to assist.”
Dr Mawoko added that the hospital will also provide transport.
Cataract surgery is a procedure to remove eye lens and sometimes replace them with artificial ones.
In Zimbabwe, eye surgery costs between US$800 to US$1 500 at private hospitals. At public hospitals, the costs varies from US$300 to US$600 but due to deteriorating social services, many Zimbabweans have had to live with cataract-induced blindness.
The cost of the medication needed after the operation is beyond the reach of many people.
