Silvia and Laura on Volunteering in Africa.
In 2022, a group of 8 students from Cardiff University School of Optometry and Vision Sciences travelled to Malawi and another group travelled to Ghana. The aim of this trip to Africa was to participate in a student programme, volunteering as optometrists and helping as many people as possible to see better.
The students performed sight tests in the main hospitals and rural areas, giving as many refractive corrections (glasses) as possible, eye drops, and sponsored cataract surgeries when required.Some of the most common eye conditions in Africa are glaucoma and river blindness (a tropical disease caused by parasites), especially in areas with difficulty in accessing fresh water; however, the major causes of blindness in Africa are simple eye conditions that are easily resolvable in the UK. The main one is cataract followed by visual impairment caused by refractive errors; this means that while in the UK we can easily access a sight test and glasses made on the same day at a reasonable affordable price, in many areas of Africa lots of people become visually impaired just because they cannot have an adequate pair of glasses.
This also applies to cataracts: in the UK most cataract surgeries are covered by the NHS and most people can happily have their vision restored with a fast procedure, while in Malawi and Ghana this procedure is not that simple: lack of transport, time and financial resources often prevent their access to such an easy surgery.
Before the departure the students collected secondhand and new spectacles, ophthalmic equipment, together with money to sponsor cataract surgeries, and eye drops.
By doing this perhaps we gave an acceptable level of vision and made a positive impact to some degree on the life quality of the local people, and at the same time learned a great deal from the experience and came back home with a different level of understanding and awareness. This experience will make us better people and give us ideas on how to contribute better once fully qualified as optometrists.
This article was contributed by Sylvia and Laura, students of Cardiff University School of Optometry and Vision Science and first published in WCB Roundup 40.