First time volunteer, Debbie, is inspired after training Batswana nurses

My story

10,800 Batswana’s suffer with visual impairments as a result of diabetes.

With appropriate monitoring and treatment, no diabetic needs to become blind, but this monitoring requires special training and equipment.

Training ophthalmic nurses is the first step in the establishment of a national screening programme vital to identifying patients with preventable or treatable eye conditions. 

How we’re helping
Debbie, a Specialist Ophthalmic- or eye- Nurse from Cambridge University Hospitals, England, has now volunteered twice in Botswana to train nurses in retinal photography and diabetic retinopathy.  In only a few months, volunteers are able to train nine ophthalmic nurses and one ophthalmologist in diabetic retinopathy. On their next visit they will help to set up a glaucoma screening service.

There are rewards for the volunteers as well.  Visiting the hospital and clinics in the cities of Molepolole and Mochudi, Botswana, has made Debbie “a better nurse”. Inspired by the work of Dr Bangure, the main consultant ophthalmologist at the Princess Marina Hospital in Botswana, she says volunteering has taught her “that we can do things in different ways and learn from each other”.

By sharing skills between professionals from the UK and Botswana, we are helping to spread the expertise needed to tackle avoidable blindness across the world.

However, as Debbie says, “there’s such a lot we can do, at the moment we’re only just scratching the surface”.

If you would like to help trainers like Debbie share their skills, please donate.