Ethiopia: Addis Ababa

DAY ONE

Our first day in Ethiopia begins with a visit to a house made out of cow dung.

We meet a young, married couple who have traveled 250 kilometers to save their baby from clubfoot.

The husband and wife are around 20 years old. He is a farmer who rents the land he farms on and makes about $30 a month. The baby boy who has clubfoot is their third child – their first two children died. They were very grateful to get free treatment for their son as they told us they could never afford it. It took just 6 weeks and now their son’s feet are perfectly straight.

We went to a clubfoot clinic that’s helped more than 6,000 children over the past 5 years. It’s a great start but there are about 50,000 children suffering with clubfoot in Ethiopia and waiting to be helped.

One of the biggest problems is most of the families and even many nurses and doctors have no idea there is a simple cure for clubfoot.

But with each child that goes back to their village after treatment, with straight feet, 3-4 more kids with clubfoot show up at the clinic.

We visited several major hospital and plastic surgery clinics including the largest burn wards in Ethiopia.

Burns are a completely different story. Unlike clubfoot cases which always have a happy ending, a burn victim usually face a lifetime of suffering and disability.

The surgery we help provide for burn victims usually has a huge impact and can greatly improve the quality of life for them, but happy endings are far and few between.

In the burn wards, we went bed to bed, meeting each patient, getting a brief medical summary and then we listened to their stories of how they were burned. Each one was different, but they were all heartbreaking. Most of them had waited many years to receive surgery because they had no money.

Without our free surgery program they would still be waiting.

We met patients who had flame burns, scald burns, electric burns and acid burns. Some fell into fires, tipped over pots of boiling water, had their huts catch fire, had their cheap cook stove blow up or accidentally touched a high voltage power line.

We heard the story of a 9 year old boy who was sleeping when a cat tipped over a kerosene lamp into his face. He waited 8 years for surgery.

A 14 year old girl who was getting straight As in 7th grade when she tried to fix a fallen curtain rod in her bedroom.

Somehow when she took down the rod it connected with a high voltage line outside her window and she was electrocuted.

They had to amputate her right arm and now she feels her life is over. No one will marry a one armed girl. She is sitting on the bench in these photos.

We met a 15 year old girl who come all the way from Somalia, the top of her skull was completely missing. They were going to try and do a skin graft.

We met several children and adults who are epileptic. They had seizures and fell into fires.

We met twins, a boy and a girl who were horrible burned when someone set their hut on fire. Their Mom was also in critical condition but in another hospital because this ward had no room for them.

We met 28-year old woman who tried kill herself. She poured kerosene over her head out in a field and lit herself on fire. This is a big problem because depression is a huge problem in developing countries. Needless to say there is no treatment and no services available for people who are depressed and or suicidal.

We met many other who suffered scald burns from pots of boiling water tipping over, electrical burns from workers.

I am only sharing the mildest burn photos because most are very, very graphic.

The surgeons and nurses were heroic and inspiring. We met a surgeon who has been helping the poor here since 1975. Now he is 75 himself and is training the next generation of Ethiopian surgeons. It is humbling to meet these folks on the front lines who have so little and yet give so much. It really recharges our batteries.

DAY TWO

It is 6 in the morning and we leave in 10 minutes for a 6 hour drive to meet 756 blind children and adults that are preparing for surgery this week that will restore their eyesight.

They are at a blindness camp in a tiny village in the South called Durame. Most of these blind children and adults have been waiting for this surgery for many years.

All these surgeries will be provided for free thanks to a team of eye surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses from Ethiopia and around the world. And two of our partners: The Himalayan Cataract Project and WEEMA – we’re proud to support them.

With more than 11.5 million blind children and adults, Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world. The good news is that surgery could restore the eyesight of about half of these folks.

That’s 750,000 blind Ethiopian children and adults who could have their eyesight restored TOMORROW through a simple 15-minute surgery. The bad news is none of them can afford it. When you make 17 cents an hour as a day laborer, a $300 surgery might as well cost $300,000.

So, 750,000 “needlessly blind” children and adults will remain blind for the rest of their lives solely because they are poor.

Unless, someone helps them.

That’s why this camp is so important. For most of these folks this is their best, last and only chance to see.

The 6+ hour drive to Durame was a surreal experience. In a 20-year old van with no shocks, a driver who spoke no english, and crazy Ethiopian religious music blaring from the speakers, we roared down a ghost highway. There were virtually no cars. Very few Ethiopians can afford a car. Just a few other commercial vans, trucks and overloaded buses — and thousands of Ethiopians walking along both sides of the road.

They were herding cattle, horses, and goats. They were carrying machetes, babies, and chickens. They were riding, pushing and herding donkey carts loaded with water containers, wood, produce and people. And they were all super friendly, waving, shouting and smiling. Many of them could not even afford shoes and yet they all seemed to have million-dollar smiles.

The poverty was pretty grim. Most of the houses are made out of cow dung and mud. They are empty because the people are all working. Even the children work as soon as they can walk. You’ll see photos of kids working in the fields instead of going to school.

Everywhere we looked we saw people carrying bright yellow water containers. It seems crazy that in the U.S. we are all streaming high def movies and carrying iPhones and over here a billion people still have to walk a mile or more to get water every day.

As we traveled hundreds of miles, it felt like we were going back in time thousands of years as we saw people cutting hay by hand, shepherds herding goats, and men and women dressed in biblical garb carrying all kinds of things on their heads: water, wheat, firewood and cow dung.

When we finally arrived at the camp, we waded through hundreds of blind children and adults who were being prepared for surgery. In these photos you can see the pain and suffering of blindness. You can also see the worry and desperation in their faces – what if the surgery doesn’t work?

We will find out tomorrow morning at 6:00 am when they take their patches off!

DAY THREE

Today is a big day.

More than 125 blind patients who were operated on yesterday are scheduled to have their bandages removed this morning.

We wake up at 5:00am. It doesn’t take long to get ready because my bathroom shower, toilet and sink do not work. The sun is just coming up as we leave our “hotel” and make our way to the hospital. When we arrive we see they have organized all the patients in long lines. The patients are quiet and many of them are nervous. I guess I would be too.

For the bandage removal process, I get to follow Dr. Matt Oliva, the leader of the team, as he works his way down the line.

Matt is a very experienced, charismatic eye surgeon from Oregon who has performed tens of thousands of these surgeries. Matt has been helping the blind in Ethiopia for many years. You can tell he really cares about these people. My job is stay out of Dr. Matt’s way and to take photos of each and every patient as the bandages come off.

Over the past 20 years, I have traveled to many of the poorest countries in the world. I have seen a lot of suffering and I have seen a lot of miracles. But I must tell you, nothing compares to watching a child or adult who was blind open their eyes and see. Nothing even comes close.

You will see that after the bandages come off, many patient pause before they open their eyes. They are afraid the surgery didn’t work. Terrified they will remain blind forever.

So we give them time. The surgeon puts his arm around them. The nurses whisper to them to open their eyes. Slowly but surely they open their eyes..

Every patient reacts differently. Some gasp. Some cry. Some scream for joy. Most of them have waited many years for this day.

Some do nothing but stand there in stunned silence, looking from left to right, shaking their head as tears stream down their cheeks.

Several women and men start dancing and singing. Many of them hugged and kissed Dr. Matt. He hugged them back. And he danced with them too.

Watching this whole “ceremony”, helping out with eye drops, medicine, follow up, are all the heroic Ethiopian and American doctors and nurses who made these miracles possible. They really are the true heroes of this program.