Projects in Ghana

Ghana is located in West Africa. It is a relatively stable country located between countries with many problems such as Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. The country became independent of Great Britain fifty years ago. More than 22 million people live in Ghana. The country is approximately six times the size of the Netherlands. Most people live along the coast. Further away from the coast the climate is more severe and the landscape more desert-like.

Upper East Region

The region in the north east of the country is called the Upper East Region. This is the Ghana hinterland. The capital Accra is nearly 1000 kilometres away. The population has to be self-sufficient. Bawku is the dazzling centre of this part of Ghana. The city is near where Ghana, Burkina Faso and Togo meet and is, therefore, a trading meeting point. The environment is barren: a flat and dusty hot savannah. More than two million people live in this area. Most of them live in small villages. They cultivate their own vegetables and take care of a few cows and goats. They try to sell the surplus at the market.

Bawku Presbyterian Hospital

This is the field of activity of the ophthalmic teams of the eye  department of the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital. They travel from Bawku to the small village clinics to screen and treat people with eye complaints nearly every day. The cases are resolved on the site when possible. When a patient has a more complex problem or when the patient requires an operation, the patient is referred to the closest eye care clinic. The Bawku Eye care programme focuses on the development and improvement of local eye care. The people in this area are not very mobile and do not like to leave their villages. It is, therefore, very important to treat them in their home environment when possible. Eye Care Foundation believes this is the right approach to the problem and has been supporting the programme since 2004.

Education

The eye care department also plays a prominent role in West Africa by organising the eye care staff training courses for the region. Not only students from Ghana itself, but also from Burkina Faso, Togo and Mali are trained here. Enthusiastic students from the nearby countries stricken by violence such as the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia arrive at Bawku to participate in the training courses to become an ophthalmic assistant. Local community health workers also arrive for refresher courses or extra training in the area of eye care.

Eye care in the Bawku countryside

 Isaac Baba is the engine that drives the eye care programme in Bawku: he was there when it all started and he is still in charge of the organisation of the eye service. For Baba and his teams, travelling to villages to screen people is a daily task. He also operates on eyes and trains nurses and assistants. He is a cataract doctor, which means he has been trained to become an ophthalmic nurse and has taken additional training to perform cataract operations.