Tuesday 29th August – Part 2

I saw my first case of trichiasis in Jinja. We met an old lady who had had a trichiasis operation some time ago, but her vision had been badly damaged before we had found her. She was now totally blind as she also had a cataract in the one eye which had retained some vision. A number of the blind people we met on this trip had more than one problem, which complicated the question of whether and how to operate.

In the afternoon we met Dennis, an 11 year old boy, blinded by measles followed by the use of traditional herbs at a young age, who had only been going to school for about a year. His parents had thought that blind children were incapable of this until the local village team discovered him and referred him to the project. He is now able to find his way around quite well – he is able to find the latrine, walk to school or to the local market. He washes his own clothes and has started his own patch where he is growing vegetables. Although still very shy, he had clearly made stunning progress in just a year. As an aside, I couldn’t help but compare what a young blind child is expected to do in Africa (wash his own clothes, grow food, walk several miles to school alone) with what a sighted child is expected to do in the UK, and wondered at the different levels of independence!!