African SMILE / Iambi Hospital
Aid For People With Eye Disease
Last February (’07), Dr. Mark Savage, an ophthalmologist resident at Haydon Hospital located 50 miles from Iambi, suggested that he safari on a regular basis to treat the many eye problems and diseases of the people living in and around Iambi.  African SMILE made arrangements with the doctor in charge at Iambi Hospital who warmly received such an offer for this assistance.
Dr. Savage and his staff have made two safaris to Iambi Hospital, using facilities there to perform 35 cataract operations while screening and treating 300 other patients. The doctor used two of his staff people for the two days spent at Iambi and an additional one on a motorcycle who visited nearby villages to conduct screening clinics and to spread this good news to local civic leaders.
The cost of the treatments performed by Dr. Savage up to this point has cost about Tzs 816.000 or $680 after the patients were charged what they could afford to pay. There is a very limited ability to pay on the part of many in this area while some aren't able to pay anything at all. African SMILE, Inc., as part of its stewardship for the people of the Iambi area has provided the necessary funds for these completed treatments.
 Your donations can make the gift of sight possible to more people in need...
When medicine alone is not enough:
Leprosy in the Iambi Area
Leprosy is a disease considered to be endemic (always current) in this region of Africa. The hospital at Iambi was originally built exclusively for treating leprosy. With the advent of sulphone drugs, lepers can be treated as out-patients by taking their medication at home. Leprosy is no longer contagious once the disease has been arrested by the multi drug treatments which the government provides without cost to patients.  However, the stigma attached to anyone having this malady is not easily erased. Many former lepers who tried to return to their homes were not accepted back into their families. Lacking homes or the support of family and friends, some patients forget to take their drugs regularly. Without the sulphones in their systems, their leprous conditions return resulting in further deformities and disabilities including the ulcers which lead to the loss of fingers, toes and even noses.
Because Iambi was the former location of treatment for lepers, a number of these forsaken people have come together at the Hospital. One group has even registered as a non-profit agency in order to obtain aid. They are living as castaways without housing, often without food which they try to beg from area residents. The organization Outreach, Inc., with which African SMILE has very close ties, has recently provided a supply of food for these people. African SMILE would like to find ways to help these needy people as well, but the quandary involves determining the best way of helping. CBM, a very large organization operating throughout Africa, has volunteered to send an expert to make an assessment of the situation at Iambi early next year. Mr. Daniel Ward, regional director of CBM in East Africa, informs us that it is a very important to go about resolving these lepers’ needs in a careful way, otherwise their current situation may be exacerbated. Reintegration into the family and community is the most desirable outcome for these people, who's current count in the area is over two hundred.
Your financial gifts can help fund future programs that will promote acceptance of lepers back into families and communities...
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