Unfortunately due to the current unrest in Kano and in other parts of Nigeria our planned trip this January 2012 has been postponed. At present we have been reassured from our friends and colleagues at ECWA that they are safe but they have obviously been affected by the terrible circumstances and the tragedies that have taken place.

We hope the turmoil in Nigeria will settle soon and look forward to the safe arrival of our colleagues from ECWA in May / June of this year. We plan to use that visit to cement ideas that are currently being put into practice at ECWA and allow our colleagues to further enhance their knowledge from clinical time in the Western Trust. The final visit in the current program will see us returning to ECWA at the end of the year.

Altnagelvin Hospital Choir choose our link as their charity at their Spring Concert on the 7^th May St. Columb’s Cathedral, Derry . The programme took it’s theme and inspiration from the words of James Agee’s poem, ‘Sure on this Shining Night’ and featured an evocative, romantic collection of choral music.   The central work was Louis Vierne’s early-twentieth century masterpiece, Messe Solennelle: a joyful mass for choir and organ.

Maria Napier, an alto and ophthalmology trainee came up with the idea of repeating the programme in her home town of Downpatrick to raise further funds for the project.  The chance to sing the programme through again and explore an historic city was embraced by the choir.  Maria’s Mum, Noreen Napier rallied round her community and Down Cathedral was full for our concert on the 4th June.  On arrival in the town we were meet by members of the Downpatrick third world group who presented a cheque for £2,000.  From the sponsors of the concert and the ticket sales we later received a further £4,000.  Our thanks to Mrs Napier, the people of Downpatrick, Ian Mills our conductor and the choir members for all their input.

In May the Kano team visited Altnagelvin, completing the second year of our activities. It was theatre nurse, Magajii and optometrist, Turuchi’s first time here. Dr Abuh, Thomas Achi and Vivian were all returning with expectations of chilling rain. They weren’t disappointed! Turuchi and Thomas both concentrated on orthoptics. Magaji and Vivian on theatre management, anaesthetic care and infection control. Below is Magaji’s report. Thomas and Dr Abuh spent time on the paediatric ward and in the biometry clinic. Dr Abuh observed a dacrocystorhinostomy, anterior levator resection and strabismus surgery.

Dr Noah Ahmedu, a doctor from ECWA Eye hospital currently doing a one year MSc at the International Centre for Eye Health came over for 24 hours to discuss the Retinoblastoma programme. We now have the Retinoblastoma awareness poster made up. 5,000 copies in English, Hausa and Yoroba will be distributed by the VISION 2020 team responsible, among other things, for distributing ivermectin for onchocerciasis treatment in Kano, Jigawa and Yobe states. It is hoped to tack on education of health workers to whom children will present as a result of the posters, to the Standard Chartered Banks eye health programme due to start in the area around Kano. Encouraging families to consent to early enucleation (eye removal) for retinoblastoma can be difficult. But this is the treatment that saves the childs life if the tumour is still confined to within the eye. We discussed strategies to improve uptake of early treatment. Dr Noah hopes to make up a video for parents to watch when they come to ECWA Eye hospital. This will include the stories of a parent whose child had early, life saving treatment and a parent who’s child did not have early enucleation and subsequently died.

During the second week of the visit Dr Abuh and Rosie went to the Royal College of Ophthalmologists Annual Congress meeting in Birmingham where they gave a short presentation on the achievements of the link so far.

REPORT ON MY VISIT TO ALTNAGELVIN, NORTHERN IRELAND ON 14/5/2011
The journey commenced on 15th May, 2011 at 12.40 a.m. and we arrived at Londonderry same day at 5.30 p.m. Two of us stayed directly opposite the Hospital.
1st Day:…(click below to read the rest!)

The Eye department in Altnagelvin Hospital (Western Health and Social Care Trust) have a 3 year link programme with ECWA Eye Hospital, Kano, Nigeria. We are concentrating on improving the eye service to children in Kano. We have formulated specific goals like improving outcomes following cataract surgery in children, improving anaesthetic care and theatre safety, changing the mortality from retinoblastoma – a childrens eye cancer. Different key people have been identified in each hospital and each year there is a visit lasting one to three weeks from Kano to Altnagelvin and vice versa. We’re encouraged by the improvements that have already occurred and look forwards to the next visit of the Kano team to N.Ireland in May.  [Rosie Brennan]

A big THANK YOU to all of you who have dug deep into your pockets to support the fund-raising efforts. As you can see from the reports, there have already been some great achievements which will help many children in Nigeria regain their sight.

We’ve recently reactivated the JustGiving site and updated the figures – you will see that we’re nearly up to £50,000 raised so far, which we’re really pleased about. We received £30,000 from the British Council for our project. We have also raised about £1,500 from the Ball raffle and Christmas donations including the front hall appeal.  Thanks again to those who’ve helped organize these events. At the moment we estimate another £5,000 will be needed. The Retinoblastoma programme may need some additional fundraising to ensure its viability after the three years of the project have been completed – further details to follow.

The first year of activities of our VISION 2020 link between the Western trust, N.Ireland and ECWA Eye Hospital, Kano, Nigeria is complete.  In June, seven people came here from Nigeria.  Five stayed for a week and two for three weeks. Specific goals had been set for their time with us.  In September, six people went from here to Kano for a week.  Again a detailed activity plan had been devised in order that our targets for the first year were reached.  Following the week in Nigeria Dr Abuh and Rosie Brennan went to Kenya to learn from the Kenyan National Retinoblastoma Strategy group there.

What changes have taken place in your hospital since the project started?

As a result of the link between your hospital and ours, some positive changes have taken place in our hospital.

1. Our hospital now has a paediatric outpatient and surgical (theatre) days
2. We now have standard and acceptable paediatric visual acuity equipment.
3. Two staff (Augustine Etoh and Thomas Achi) of ECWA Eye Hospital, Kano, Nigeria, have been receiving short term training on proper squint and visual acuity assessment and proper use of the slit lamp for the examination of patients.

Volcanic ash grounded our flights to Kano this April.   We all trudged back into hastily rebooked clinics and lists in the Western Trust instead.   Now we’re looking forwards to our Nigerian counterparts coming here in June and we plan our return visit to Kano in September.