Since 2013, Embracing the World Kenya and Vision Without Borders, Spain have collaborated with local doctors across the country to perform free cataract surgeries. The teams have now completed more than 1,900 procedures, and this year they did so despite Kenya being under COVID-19 restrictions.
Another milestone was reached: for the first time, some of the surgeries could take place in an operating room instead of a mobile medical camp. A small hospital opened in one of Nairobi's slums and welcomed the ophthalmologists, optometrists, and nurses. Most of the patients were from the Kikuyu ethnic group, the most common in the area, but people also travelled from remote areas such as Kisii, Meru, and Mombasa.
Some of the patients had been living with cataracts for a long time but, for lack of resources, could not afford surgery. Dr. Isabel Signes Soler, an optometrist and one of the project's organisers, shares that this year — out of the hundreds of patients she has met over the years — one little girl deeply inspired her.
