George Miti

George Miti and his mother, Chalwe, met the Kitwe Pediatric Eye Care Center’s outreach team by accident when they were conducting a screening day near their village on the outskirts of Kitwe, Zambia.

Chalwe explained to them that during previous weeks his son’s  eyelids had suddenly and unexplainably swollen to such an extent that he could no longer open his eyes and was not the same playful 2 year old boy and she didn’t know what to do.

The outreach team, which focuses on educating communities on eye health, finding children with uncorrected eye conditions to ensure early detection and efficient referral of cases to the hospital, sent him to the eye care unit straight away so he could have the best chance of seeing again.

When ORBIS volunteer ophthalmic nurse, Ann Marie Ablett, met George during her second training visit to newly opened Kitwe Pediatric Eye Care Center, he was standing on a bed in the newly refurbish children’s ward kicking a red balloon back and forth to his mother. George had become increasingly introverted and could only detect a small amount of light and movement from the narrow slits of his eyes.

Dr. Chileshe Mboni assessed George and in a matter of minutes diagnosed George’s problem. He had a major sinus infection on the eye socket that, in some cases, can be life threatening if left untreated. If eyelids continue to swell and subsequently droop, pressure on the eye can build and lead to permanent vision loss. The infection can spread onto the brain and cause meningitis which can be fatal.

George after having treatment

Mboni further explained that: ‘in George’s case the dusty environment of his village coupled with the lack of clean water to wash his face lead to the infection’. Dr. Mboni administered him an antibiotic and within 48 hours the swelling in George’s eye had completely gone down and he was able to fully open his eyes. George was himself again.

This story has a happy ending, but without the early intervention of the Kitwe eye care team the outcome could have been so different.

The World Health Organization suggests that 50% of the causes of childhood blindness are preventable. George could so easily have become a statistic and lost his sight permanently from a complication that is treatable. This is why ORBIS’s comprehensive model for pediatric eye care in Africa includes not only the surgical intervention but also focuses on community outreach and education. 

The Kitwe Pediatric Eye Care Center opened on September 12, 2011 and it is the result of the partnership between ORBIS, Kitwe Central Hospital’s Eye Unit and the Zambian Department of Health to develop specialized services for children’s eye health. The center is the only child focused eye care facility in the country where pediatric cataract, glaucoma, trachoma and conjunctivitis are all too prevalent.

Kitwe Pediatric Eye Care Center

ORBIS’s comprehensive support includes not only the provision of state of the art surgical and diagnostic equipment and the refurbishment of the children’s ward but also ongoing training and development of the pediatric eye care team.