Hello! I am a retired optometrist and now serve as the Board President of Shared Vision International. I am excited for the opportunity to give an update on the activities of our organization and what we are anticipating in the months to come. Many of you share our sadness that we are no longer able to visit Haiti due to violent unrest. We hope and pray for our friends in Haiti – prayer for their safety and hope for the chance to travel there again soon.
Over the last four years, we have shifted our vision care focus to a remote area of Kenya. In addition to conducting vision clinics, our goal is to improve access to quality overall healthcare for adults and children living in an impoverished and underserved area of western Kenya. Shared Vision has joined forces with another NGO from Iowa along with a number of Rotary Clubs to improve and upgrade the county hospital and possibly even to build a clinic in the rural village of Shikunga.
Thanks to a Global Rotary Grant in 2017, the Obstetrics unit at Kakamega County Hospital has enabled healthy births for over 1,500 babies and reduced maternal mortality deaths by 72%. In 2021, Florida Rotarians sponsored a grant to install sanitary indoor bathrooms with ecological waste disposal at schools serving 1,000 abandoned and orphaned children in Kakamega. For that specific project, a Shared Vision team served as part of an all-volunteer medical mission that provided vision and eye health exams along with typhoid inoculations to many Kenyans.
Our last mission trip was January 2024. Shared Vision was part of a team of four optometrists, opticians and other volunteers where we served over 1,800 Kenyans. On some clinic days there were over 200 people waiting when we arrived, and by 11am we had reached our capacity of 300 for the day. They waited patiently in the hot sun to be seen. The eye conditions varied from blindness as a result of trauma or untreated glaucoma or cataracts, to simply needing reading glass to work and sew. We were able to detect and treat mild and moderate cases of glaucoma along with numerous ocular infection and inflammation. We gave out approximately 1,500 pairs of glasses. It was an incredibly rewarding experience.
Currently, we are working with our Florida and Nebraska Rotary partners along with private donors on two new exciting projects. The first is completing a clinic in the rural village of Shikunga. We have been involved in this project since its inception and we hope to have the building completed by later this year. Rotary clubs have applied for a grant of equipment and supplies to help furnish the clinic.
This facility will treat patients who are uninsured and unable to travel to the public hospital in Kakamega. Services will include pediatrics, maternity care, gynecology, immunizations, chronic disease management, post-surgical care, vision and dental exams, along with laboratory and pharmacy services.
The other project will equip a new operating room and provide modern equipment for the Kakamega County Hospital. This will enable the hospital to improve cataract and other ophthalmological services, which is a significant need in the area. The project will also provide training for the hospital staff and enable follow-up care at the Shikunga clinic.
Once the hospital and clinic improvements are in place, we will have ongoing volunteer teams of doctors, nurses, optometrists, dentists, and other health professionals conducting free care clinics, providing expert consultations and training local medical professionals. This will have a major impact on the health and well-being of thousands of men, women and children in rural Kenya who currently have little or no access to care.
We are currently preparing for our 2025 trip to Kenya, and we are eager to see what work has been done while we have been away and how we can help to continue the momentum with the resources we are able to contribute and with a team eager to help.
~ Dr. Jim Devine, OD
