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ESI: How We Started
WE CAN HELP
The founders, ophthalmologists Dr. John Bosetti and Dr. Nancy Jameson felt fortunate to have received excellent training, and to have worked in state of the art facilities with advanced equipment to maintain and improve the vision of their patients. Understanding the huge number of people with untreated, but curable blindness in poor countries, they wanted to personally help these patients and their doctors.
WHERE HELP IS NEEDED MOST
They knew they could help by doing surgery, treating eye diseases and bringing modern equipment to local doctors. They investigated the locations with the greatest need for their help. The were invited to work and teach at the Zimba Eye Hospital and clinic in Zambia, Africa, and they decided to go.
SAVING SIGHT
They traveled to Africa, providing direct surgical and medical care to the underserved, and teaching local physicians, medical students, and staff. During their time there, they were able to help restore the vision of many people who had been blind, often for many years. The main operations they did were to cure cataracts, the main cause of blindness worldwide.
HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS
Supported by generous donations from their patients, many others in the local community, and partners in the ophthalmology industry, they also provided desperately needed supplies, equipment and instruments to improve the quality and safety of care.
TEACHING & LEARNING
The days working in Africa were long and joyous. Seeing the smiles, and sometime tears of happiness, of those who could see the faces of their loved ones for the first time in many years is not something one forgets. Teaching a doctor to do a new operation to better help her fellow man is a step toward a better life for many.
WE NEED TO HELP MANY MORE PEOPLE
However, both doctors realized that the number of people they could help was limited. Teaching others was more effective, but the number of people they could personally teach was also limited. They also realized that the facilities they saw were quite old, small and crowded, often with poorly functioning equipment. Most importantly there was no room or technology to allow for efficient teaching. These experiences and observations led them to an inescapable conclusion: to truly decrease the vast number of patients who have treatable blindness, they must do much more. But what?
THE ANSWER
The answer was obvious. To reduce or eliminate treatable blindness in poor countries, more eye operations and other treatments must be done, especially cataract surgery. Those operations and treatments must be done well, using safe, modern techniques and procedures. They must also be done by local ophthalmologists who will spend their entire careers treating local patients. Many very common blinding eye diseases such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy require frequent in person examinations. This cannot be sustainably of effectively done by international doctor flying into the third world to work at temporary “camps,.” The care must be done by local doctors, nurses and staff at local, modern facilities.
LOCAL STAFF
This local, long term care and large increase in the number of surgeries done will require many more local ophthalmologists/eye surgeons. More local ophthalmologists can only be created by establishing local training facilities and programs. The important staff including nurses and technicians can also be trained at these centers.
THE FUTURE
This has become the mission of ESI—to reduce blindness around the world by establishing ophthalmology teaching centers. We will partner with doctors and other facilities to improve the health of the people living in large surrounding areas.
A TEACHING CAMPUS
We are now raising funds to establish a major teaching eye hospital and clinic in Zimba, Zambia. See below for further details.