The northern regions of Mali have very few resources, both human and material, to cover eye care needs. And the location of the Sominé Dolo Hospital in Mopti, located between the northern and southern regions of the country, makes its ophthalmology services essential to caring for thousands of people. It is an area where the incidence of cataracts is very high, and this hospital performs 30% of surgeries in the region.
The problem is that, due to the socio-political context and the current conflict situation, the use of this operating room by the ophthalmology team experiences several difficulties. On the other hand, the surgical treatment of eye emergencies is increasingly saturated by the numerous victims of war. And on the other hand, the same operating room is shared with many other types of surgeries. This is a severe drawback, not only because eye operations are reduced to a maximum of a couple of times a week but also because such a busy operating room is very septic and increases the risk of infection in eye interventions.
For this reason, at the beginning of 2022, the hospital management sent the Eyes of the world Foundation a request for urgent support to create an autonomous and exclusive operating room for the ophthalmology department. A vital fact for the eye surgeon is to effectively plan more regular and unrestricted operating programmes.
Eyes of the world spent months managing the financing and construction of the project, and in February 2023, the independent module was inaugurated, fully conditioned, and equipped. The operating room is now ready, and the schedule of eye surgeries will begin in mid-March.
This Eyes of Mali project has the support of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia.
