In January 2023, Shared Vision International joined a team of fourteen Americans on a humanitarian mission to provide eye care in rural Kenya. This was the third visit to a remote rural village in the past four years. The all volunteer team was composed of four optometrists, many others with and without eye care experience, and two committed Nebraska high school students!
We had a very effective team, who together provided care for over 1,800 Kenyans. The villagers presented with common conditions like nearsightedness and difficulty reading which were relieved with a large inventory of glasses we brought that were inventoried in a computer program.
Many people presented with various degrees of cataracts, glaucoma, ocular infections and inflammation. We treated many glaucoma patients with a year's supply of glaucoma medication and educated the person and family members on their prognosis and necessary follow up. Unfortunately, there were many conditions too far along to offer any improvement. After delivering the sad news of blindness we were unable to treat, we witnessed fortitude, grace, and hope as they thanked us for being there so others may not have to endure their struggle.
Shared Vision International has partnered with other like-minded organizations and dedicated individuals to help build a Level 2 Rural Hospital in Shinkunga, Kenya. This has been in collaboration with the Kakamaga County Hospital. Tremendous progress has been made over the last few years and the clinic awaits the finishing touches of electricity and plumbing. We utilized this near finished facility to provide vision clinics to rural Kenyans who otherwise had no access to, or lacked the resources for basic eye care. Upon completion, SVI hopes to equip the hospital with equipment and instruments to allow for ongoing eye missions providing glasses and treatment for conditions like cataract, glaucoma and eye disease.
As part of our ongoing commitment to relieving health care inequity in rural Kenya, we will be traveling back to the village of Shinkunga next year for another eye clinic. By then, the rural hospital should be on its way to providing care for chronic conditions like hypertension and
