We started with a dream, developing vision. This week, CatarACT International, in partnership with Michael Gyasi, opened its first ophthalmic clinic in Accra, Ghana. It is the end of a long journey, born two years ago out of new conversations in Chicago, new friendships in Erode, and new partnerships in Accra. And of course, it is the beginning of another more difficult, more exhilarating, more important mission. After all the study and planning, we can begin reaching patients desperately in need. We will do so in an economically sustainable way, ensuring that the infrastructure we build will continue to serve Ghanaians for years to come. It's certainly an exciting time for us. But it is, I believe, an exciting time for Ghanaian ophthalmology, for the hundreds of thousands blind patients and for healthcare workers who want to do more to help them. This week, the doors opened and patients started to arrive; soon, we will begin performing surgeries. To help Dr. Gyasi with the logistics of opening, CatarACT team member Femi Nyatepe-Coo spent three weeks in Ghana--he'll write soon with details of his busy three weeks planning, working, and documenting the clinic opening. It's an incredible story, indeed.
It's a story of which all of our supporters are a part. Everyone who donated helped to make this happen. Thank you. Everyone who advised us is a part of this story. Thank you. And of course, the fantastic new staff in Ghana, led by Dr. Gyasi, and all the doctors in India who inspired them, including Dr. Panneerselvam, are the heroes of this story. Thanks to them for their courage and their willingness to dream with us of developing vision.
This is a soft start, giving us time to build our connections with the community and fine tune our efforts. We are very optimistic, but continue to pursue our work carefully. At this time, more than any other, as the early costs of the clinic add up, we need support from those who believe that locally led, sustainable healthcare is necessary and possible for West Africa. Dream with us, too, and let's keep developing vision together.
Recently, I moved out to Washington DC, and my first night here was something of an adventure. Having developed some strange form of food poisoning, I developed a high fever and staggered over to the Georgetown University Hospital three blocks away. Hours later, fever receding and full of medication, wrapped in those mystery-fabric E.R. blankets but unable to sleep, I began to think: In Ghana as of right now, despite new and developing government-sponsored health care programs and a decently stable state, there are people for whom a major problem, not just food poisoning but the lack of sight, is not a condition that can be dealt with by a simple three-block walk. This is not a one-night condition, like my food-poisoning; or a one week condition. It's a disease that must be dealt with, slowly and with painful resignation, for years and years, forgetting not only the way things look but how, in fact, to see hope or a way out.
I realized that right now, with the help of a small number of people, some doctors, some economists, some human rights advocates, and some normal people who just care a lot, we have the tools to end not only the blindness but the mute, heavy resignation that comes from being incapable of fending for yourself. That group of people isn't just handing them back sight, senses, the tools by which they can work and play .... that group of people also cures a crushing emotional disaster: giving up. In a couple of minutes, in a small room, using some pretty inexpensive equipment, a trained doctor can hand an individual both the power of sight and the will to live.
But lots of people want to help. After all, helping others is sexy in our day and age. I think the secret is not just to come in, hero-savior style, but to understand how to incorporate yourself into the fabric of the world around you. Not only are we more effective for it, but we can make sure that its people helping their own families, villages, cities, and country. Instead of throwing ourselves into the natural architecture of the society, we add a new, yet integrated layer to it. The panache in our approach isn't that we want to help people see, work, and live free again after years of darkness. It's that we want that exact kind of help to become a natural constant in the social fabric of West Africa.
"We must start from the simple premise that Africa's future is up to Africans." This, from President Obama's address to the Ghanaian parliament this week, is really the fundamental tenet for healthy development in Africa and much of the rest of the world. It was a reminder to me about what exactly it is we're doing here at CatarACT International. Yes, our focus is this one devastating, solvable problem: the burden of curable blindness. But the method we choose--to partner with local clinicians and make sure they have a stake in the projects we develop together--represents a profound belief in the ability of Africans to transform their continent. When we started CatarACT, we had the idea that there are useful ways that an organization based in America could serve as an intermediary between great ideas in one part of the developing world (India) and great talent in another (West Africa). The real heroes in our project, and the real story, are the tireless healthcare workers around the world who are taking the future of their communities into their own hands. This African century should belong to Africans. The world can help, but sometimes we could all do best to lead by following.
I touched on this a little bit in my conversation with Jerome McDonnell at Chicago Public Radio's Worldview recently. If you haven't heard it, check it out here. Worldview has done a really impressive job over the years of featuring groups based in the Chicago area working on questions of global development. We were very gratified to be asked to talk about the work we're doing at CatarACT on the show. Considering the President's visit to Ghana, it comes at an opportune time. There's a lot about what's going on in Ghana that is really encouraging--democracy, stability, civil society. As I mentioned in the interview, it really is a perfect place for us to pilot this powerful model. Over the next months and years, we'll see that an end to curable blindness can be achieved in Ghana. And Ghanaians can achieve it. Hey, it's a simple premise.
Prajwal Ciryam, Executive Director of CatarACT International, will appear on The Michael Koolidge Show on 1360 AM WLBK and 1060 AM WRHL. If you're in the Chicagoland area, tune in at 6 PM (US Central) on Monday March 31. If not, check out the podcast at The Mike Koolidge Show.
Hi everyone. I'm happy to say that the CatarACT International Blog is finally here! Check back for CatarACT news, perspectives on development, and general ruminations from the CatarACT team. Let us know if you have any questions, comments, or ideas.
