Thursday 9th November

We began the morning by visiting the Eye department at the Bo government hospital, and met Mr Sandy who runs the clinic. There is a lot of river blindness in the area – this is second only to cataract as a cause of blindness here. They typically perform 40 cataract operations a month, although at busy times after a camp (there are two free camps a year) this can rise to as much as 40 in a day. The optical centre seemed to be very well run.

After the hospital we went to Paul’s School for the Blind. This had recently had new buildings and was apparently in a much better state than when Sightsavers had last visited. The children seemed pretty lively, and this is one of the schools to which we will roll out the Inclusive Education Programme pilot if it works well at Milton Margai.

After lunch we drove out to Bumpeh to meet a number of people who had benefited from the Community Based Rehabilitation project (partnered with Sierra Leone Association for the Blind - SLAB). All had been trained in some kind of handicraft – such as weaving, hammock making, and these were being encouraged to train others.