A recent patient came all the way to the clinic from Diywanyia, a city over 50km from Najaf.  70 year old Sabreeya Lafta had rapidly deteriorating sight – having struggled with diabetes for over 20 years, the loss of vision she was experiencing was a result of poor control of the condition.  Sabreeya was in [...]

The Al-Hasan Foundation eye clinic opened its doors yesterday for the start of the World Glaucoma week 2012, offering free glaucoma eye screening to the public from 11-17 March.  The theme for 2012 is “don’t let glaucoma darken your life’ and leaflets about the event will be distributed across Najaf.  Last year’s open clinic was hugely [...]

The cold weather is setting in now, with temperatures going down to 7°c and having no gas or electric central heating in the building makes it bone-cruchingly cold.  We have had to rely on gasoline heaters and wrapping up in lots of layers but the thankfully the temperature is nice and warm in the clinic, with [...]

It’s coming up to a year now since we opened the Al-Hasan Foundation eye clinic in Najaf full-time and it has been a very successful, satisfying and fruitful year. More than 4000 patients examined and treated, over 2,000 school children screened and 100 patients have undergone successful laser procedures performed in the clinic.  We have [...]

Last week we made a visit to the Imam Ali High school for ‘World Glaucoma Week’ event and undertook a proper screening of over 200 pupils, as well as talking to them about glaucoma, eye diseases and general eye care.  It was a highly  successful visit and after the eye exams we took some time [...]

I am delighted to announce that the AHF eye clinic in Najaf will be taking part in this year’s ‘ World Glaucoma Week from 6 – 12 March. We will be providing a free glaucoma screening service to all our patients, opening the clinic doors all week to help increase public awareness of the condition, [...]

It was the orphans’ turn on Thursday and the usual hustle and bustle of young children and concerned widows greeted us at the entrance of the Al-Aqeela Foundation building in Najaf.  We managed to rattle through the examinations without any major incidents.  It’s still hot here in Najaf, with temperatures around 38C in the afternoon, but the electricity is [...]

We kicked off the school eye screening programme last Wednesday at the Imam Ali school in Najaf, which opened in 2003 following the Liberation.  Originally intended just for the orphans of Najaf, the incredibly high demand meant they opened their doors to all children, provided they pass an entrance exam. We started by examining the 16 year old young [...]

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 [...]