It’s pretty hot here, we hit 53 C in Najaf last week and the electricity is a nuisance. On the clinic front, the work is slow but steady, not aided by this hot summer we’re having.  We see about 50-75 patients a week and the numbers are gradually increasing.  We’ll be starting an advertising campaign, inshallah, to [...]

It’s been a long struggle but we finally reopened the clinic last Sunday and immediately got a rush of patients. Some came from as far as Mosul which is 580 km north of Najaf and Iraq’s 2nd largest city.
The electricity is one of the major problems here in Najaf.  We rarely get more than 6 [...]

We have started with the building and flooring works for the new Al-Hasan Eye Clinic.  Getting the right people and the materials for the task is quite a challenge.  There’s a lot of damp under the current floor, most of the tiles have broken off and we also need to sort out the ancient electrical [...]

A big thank you to all the staff at the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, including the nurses, optometrist, doctors, residents and seniors for their hospitality and kindness – and for making me feel so very welcome there. A special thanks to Dr Reeta Gurung, the Deputy Medical Director and Mr. Bal Sander Chansi, the Training [...]

Greetings from Nepal where I’ve just attended a week-long National Eye Bank Meeting, bringing together corneal surgeons and eye bank reps from around the world to discuss ways of developing the eye bank service in Nepal (Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology has the biggest national eye bank and hosted the conference).   Eye Banks are responsible for retrieving, storing and providing [...]

Thursday was Nepalese New Year, year 2067  and therefore no work in the hospital, so I took the opportunity to travel to Pokhara which is a city of close to 200,000 inhabitants in central Nepal, located 198 km west of Kathmandu.  It is the third largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu and Biratnagar.
Located within the Pokhara valley, the [...]

Greetings from Kathmandu! I have been here for 5 days now, and have certainly got used to this busy city, with its narrow and crowded streets and choking car fumes. Everywhere you look there are small 4-door Maruti Suzukis – India’s best selling car.
I am staying in the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology [...]

 
Well done to all our dedicated volunteers who braved the cold and at times wet weather as well as the rushing masses in the London Underground stations on Saturday.  A special thank you to Mehdi for organising this unforgettable event.   It was my first tube collection and I must say it was hard work but throughly enjoyable [...]

Today was the last day at the Al-Hussain hospital and I sensed sadness in the staff.  They didn’t express it, Iraqis rarely discuss and talk about emotions but you can sometimes see it, as Iraqis can get very emotional. We had a rush of patients needing attention, young and old, all having small papers from contacts [...]

I left again for Karbala with our admin man in Najaf, Abdul Hussain, who’s moonlighting as our camera man.  Today we will be filming the theatres and the doctors so that people can see the real pictures and stories in Karbala.
It was a busy day at the hospital’s clinic and theatre……all but one of the [...]