care Prof:
On Friday the 6th August 2010, Briton, Dr. Karen Woo and her team from the International Support Mission (IAM) were killed while returning from an eye medical outreach visit in Nuristan Province, Pakistan.
CBM, who have been working closely with IAM in Afghanistan for 30 years, expressed their deep condolences to the households and friends of Karen and her colleagues. Mike Davies OBE, CBM’s Head of Overseas Programmes, says “this tragic and needless loss of life will be felt not only by the households and friends of Karen and her colleagues, but by the folks of Afghanistan itself, whom she died serving.”
CBM, the overseas disability charity, is really a key financial supporter with the NOOR Eye Care Program. NOOR provides eye care to all those who need it, regardless of their ability pay. NOOR provide affordable, high quality ophthalmic medications and eyeglasses for IAM also as other eye care providers; to train ophthalmic care providers at all levels; to reach a higher level of technical and financial sustainability; and to support the goals of the Vision 20/20 initiative
The Afghanistan-based IAM has been almost continuously present in Afghanistan since 1966, providing a wide range of medical services to individuals with visual, physical and mental health problems. Its work is facilitated by regular grants from CBM.
CBM has been present in Afghanistan since 1978, supporting a network of eight Afghan agencies operating inside the prevention of blindness field, and provides annual financial support amounting to about ?????o250,000 a year. With CBM help, the Kabul-based Noor Eye Hospital alone in 2009 was able to perform 15,000 sight-restoring operations on destitute cataract patients.
CBM works in ninety countries, amongst populations living below the poverty line, and often in remote areas. There are constant risks present in all these countries – natural disasters, disease, crime, accidents, conflict – only the nature together with the risk varies from place to place. All development agencies and charities operating overseas have risk monitoring systems in place, operating in close liaison with nearby authorities, to make certain the safety and security of staff, but most risks can only be mitigated, not eliminated. Rarely, but sadly, tragedies happen. This is the nature of development work, and something that is properly understood by those who choose to work in this field.
The main causes of blindness in Afghanistan are cataract and trachoma. The number of needlessly blind individuals within the country is at least 300,000. A cataract surgery is quick, effective and costs less than ?????o20. Trachoma, a chronic infection with the eye that can result in blindness, responds well to antibiotic ointment too as a regime of facial hygiene using clean water.
CBM has a strong commitment to operating with disabled folks in West Asia, a region where about 40% with the population lives below the poverty line. In Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, the West Bank and Afganistan, CBM is providing technical and financial support to 41 programmes operating to improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities. In Pakistan, where the flood survivors face a long struggle to rebuild their lives, CBM is working with its nearby partners to restore essential medical and rehabilitative services, and to create certain that the desires of people with disabilities are getting met.
In addition to poverty and natural and man-made disasters, meeting those wants is made far far more difficult by the fact that a whole lot of folks who need support live in remote rural areas, far away from services. It was on one such outreach mission to reach the unreachable that Karen Woo and her colleagues lost their lives. CBM re-affirms its full commitment to continuing to support in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in an ongoing effort to reach the unreachable, and bring them into productive roles inside the mainstream of society.
CBM works with over 700 partners in over 90 countries and reaches out to much more than 23 million men and women each year. CBM is recognised by the Globe Health Organisation and supports over 800 projects.
CBM, the overseas disability charity, works to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities inside the world’s poorest communities. Our goal is to empower men and girls to change their own lives. Based on its Christian values and over 100 years of professional expertise and experience, CBM addresses poverty as a cause and consequence of disability, and works in partnership to create a society for all. CBM helps folks regardless of their religious beliefs.
Source: CBM