The Blessing of Eye Sight: Al Noor’s Story
Free medical camps are undoubtedly an effective way of serving the needy and deprived people of Zanzibar and Pemba Islands.
Al Noor Charitable Agency for the Needy of Zanzibar in cooperation with Al-Basar International Foundation and the Zanzibar Ministry of Health has launched world-class FREE eye care treatment for the prevention of curable diseases that lead to blindness.
All Cataract surgeries are conducted using the latest PHACOEMULSIFICATION techniques.
The Zanzibar FREE Eye Camp is led by two highly skilled surgeons, each of them with the experience of approximately 20,000 eye-surgeries.
BISMILLAH AR-RAHMAN AR-RAHEEM, As-Salaamu ‘Alaikum wa-Rahmatullah wa-Barakaatu,
As human beings, we are destined to face different kinds of vision problems however, the good news is that, most eye sight problems and diseases are curable if detected on time and treated properly. The agony however lies with under privileged people who can hardly pay the expense of transportation to attend the free Eye Camp. Many of them end up losing their eye sight totally and spending their lives in unbearable distress.
This is exactly the reason why Al Noor Charitable Agency for the Needy of Zanzibar has worked very hard with Al Basar International Foundation to include Zanzibar in their annual Africa Tour. The Zanzibar Ministry of Health “Eye department” has given us all the needed support.
The Zanzibar Ministry of Health doctors have conducted the pre-screening of the patients well in advance. A group of 16 doctors, technicians, and support team travelled from different parts of the world to Zanzibar as part of the Al-Basar Africa Tour. Alhamdulillah, 5,600 Out Patients attended the Free Eye camp, of which:
- 164 were admitted for successful surgery
- 163 had IOLS implanted
- and 950 were provided with free glasses.
The Eye Camp also included a comprehensive 6 weeks post-operative follow up program.
This is the second Al Noor sponsored Eye Camp. The first Eye Camp was conducted in Pemba in 2013 where 2,235 patients attended the initial OPD screening of which 160 men and women were admitted for successful surgery.
Apart from the Free Eye camps, Al Noor has been supporting the health care sector by donating dozens of hospital beds and wheelchairs. As we speak, Al Noor is shipping a modern Mercedes ambulance from the UK to Zanzibar and Insha’Allah one more will follow for the Pemba Island, providing much needed assistance to the sick and elderly.
Al-Basar International has been organizing free eye camps to needy countries of Africa & Asia since 1990 with facilities of complete schedules of post-operative follow-ups. During the period of 25 years, Al Basar has covered 45 countries in Africa and Asia and completed 1,233 eye camps (to date), in which more than 4.26 Million patients have been examined/screened/treated and more than 254,800 eye-surgeries conducted, while more than One Million people have benefitted with Presbiopic and other necessary Eyeglasses.
Since Cataract is the main cause of blindness in the world, Al Noor Charity will continue to emphasize on Cataract treatment. However, we hope that in the future we would be able to work with Al Basar International Foundation and the Zanzibar Ministry of Health (Eye Department) utilizing Al Basar Ophthalmologists/Surgeons to conduct other types of surgeries such as Glaucoma filtration surgeries, squint correction surgeries and Lid surgeries. But most of these surgeries need a proper set up and long follow ups and we pray that with the blessings of Allah and the support of our loyal patrons, we will see a light at the end of the tunnel.