Vanuatu
Jean Lini
Jean Lini waited patiently outside Vanuatu's main eye care clinic in Luganville on the island of Santo. One cataract appeared over a year ago quickly followed by another, robbing her of her sight.
Blindness, combined with the effects of a stroke some years earlier, meant the 80-year-old woman was unable to garden, cook and even look after herself at her home in the northern region of the island of Pentecost. Her son and daughter in law moved from Santo to be with her but she hated being dependent on them.
For decades Mrs Lini had looked after herself and raised one of Vanuatu's most pivotal political figures as part of her family. Her son, Father Walter Lini, was an Anglican minister who formed the Vanua'aka Party in 1971 as Vanuatu's independence movement gathered speed and strength. He was elected Prime Minister in 1979 and oversaw Vanuatu's official independence a year later as well as the ensuing fighting between French and English-speaking factions, each supported by foreign governments.
But even the mother of a great political leader must wait for eye care. Escorted by her daughter in law, one cataract was removed earlier by Dr John Szetu and his team of eye care nurses. The next morning Mrs Lini came to have the bandages removed. Slowly they were peeled back by eye care nurse Colwyn Dingley.
A cheer and then a huge smile appeared on Mrs Lini's face as she took in the surroundings of the unfamiliar building. She waved to the people gathered there. "I didn't think so many people would be here," she commented.
It is the look on the faces of the patients that keep Dr Szetu and the nurses going. Dr Szetu explained: "Some of my patients look up and say ... ‘I don't know what to give you in return'. I say that the reward is seeing them see again. Some start shouting and kissing your hand. Some go into shock because the colours are almost too much for them. In the early stages of cataracts you can only see black and white so the colours have been gone for a long time."
Although he is based on Santo, Dr Szetu performs major operations such as cataract removal across Vanuatu as part of its national eye care program, largely funded by The Fred Hollows Foundation. The patients are screened by a team of eye care nurses who have freshly graduated from Dr Szetu's eye care course.
Five completed their training last year including Annie Bong who runs the clinic in Port Vila and Colwyn Dingley who is in charge in Santo. The three others are scattered around Vanuatu and The Foundation is working towards having eye care nurses in each province. Mr Dingley assists in surgery and does minor procedures as well as prescribing glasses, doing refraction and assessing patients for surgery.
This year, Dr Szetu and Mr Dingley are joined by four nurses in the eye care program: George, Santhy, Esau and Edwin are already fully qualified nurses with some years of practical experience and were chosen by their regional health departments to take place in the program. Funded by The Fred Hollows Foundation, it runs for one year at the end of which the graduates will return to their home areas to set up clinics such as the one in Port Vila.
So busy is Annie Bong in Port Vila that George will join her next year. Ms Bong's clinic is used not only by those people who cannot afford private eye care services but also by those people who are impressed with her abilities.
At a meeting with the Ministry of Health, the director of human resources, Ms Maturine Tary, commented that she had had her own glasses fitted at Ms Bong's clinic. She paid 600vt for her glasses instead of 40,000vt at a private optometrist. (100vt = $1.33Aud)
"It was just the same as going to a qualified optometrist," Ms Tary said, more with pleasure than with surprise. "She has all the qualities and equipment of a doctor."
It is the nurses who are the backbone of the Hollows Foundation's project in Vanuatu and their boss, Dr Szetu, sings their praises to anyone in hearing distance.
"The nurses form the foundation of our work. If they are weak so are we because they are very important to the program. They need more recognition and encouragement. "
In March 2002, with the support of The Fairfax Group, (publishers' of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Melbourne Age), journalist Stephanie Peatling accompanied our program coordinator Lisa McMurray to Vanuatu. They met many people including Mrs Jean Lini, a patient of Dr John Szetu who is employed by The Fred Hollows Foundation to establish an eye care program in Vanuatu with the support of the Ministry of Health.
Marie and Jetie Simo
Ten-year-old Marie and eight-year-old Jetie Simo had lived in darkness for as long as they could remember, unable to attend school and play like normal children.
Unaware that their blindness was totally reversible, the children and their parents werre resigned to a lifetime of dependency.
During a surgical tour by The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ to the southernmost province of Vanuatu, these two young siblings were examined. It was Esau Naket, the eye nurse based at Lenakel Hospital in Tanna, who diagnosed Marie and Jetie with cataracts.
Esau is one of the nurses trained by The Fred Hollows Foundation Vanuatu program to become solecharge eye nurses running their own clinics in remote locations away from the main hospitals.
Nurse Esau made sure the two children saw The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ's eye surgeon. He then arranged for the patients to be transferred to the hospital on the northern island of Santo, so the children could be operated on using the general anaesthetic equipment necessary for children.
After a 20-minute operation, both children were able to see perfectly for the first time in their living memory.
Jetie particularly found cars very exciting because he had heard the noise from car engines in the past but had never seen a vehicle before.
The children's parents were ecstatic and were very grateful to the eye nurse for identifying their children's cataracts and for organising their travel to obtain the much-needed surgery. They were enormously relieved that the children would not live the rest of their lives totally blind and dependent on others. They would now be able to go to school and live full, productive lives.
The operations to restore Marie and Jetie's sight have not only drastically improved their own lives, but also those of their large extended family, who no longer have to spend time and precious resources caring for the two children.
It will also mean that the two children will be able to contribute to their family's economy and to look after their parents in their old age. The restoration of their sight has had a profound effect on their whole family and, in turn, their community.
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Find out more about our Vanuatu program