From 17th to 26th July 2012, The Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV) of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized an Eye Camp in the Bamenda Regional Hospital in the North West Region of Cameroon.
The Eye Camp was the fruit of the collaboration between various willing actors: MASHAV, the Embassy of Israel in Cameroon, the Ministry of Public Health (Cameroon), the Bamenda Regional Hospital, Eye from Zion and the Shalom Club in Bamenda. As such, it was a true expression of what H.E. Miki ARBEL, Israel’s Ambassador to Cameroon, called in his speech at the opening ceremony “an activity-based encounter of peoples”.
Screening of patients started as early as 2nd July 2012 and by the morning of 17th July 2012, scores of patients, some blind for many years and others with ocular tumours and related aesthetic defects, were at the ophthalmology department of the Bamenda hospital awaiting their turn to receive their life changing surgery and medication… free.
The Israeli team of Doctors made up of Mrs. Yamin Esther (nurse), Dr. Yael Dekel, Dr. Gala Beykin and led by Dr. Michael Halpert were not fazed by the scale and variety of surgeries that they were expected to do nor did they pay much attention to how different the hospital and theatre were from the sophistication they are accustomed to. In fact, the first patient went under the knife a few hours after the doctors arrived at the hospital.
Patients were rich, poor, male, female, Christian, Muslim, young and old.
During the camp, local doctors also visited the hospital from other parts of the country to share their experiences with the Israeli team and to learn new techniques in cataract and oculo-plastic surgery.
In a colourful opening ceremony, the Governor of the North West Region, Adolphe Lele Lafrique lauded the cooperation between Cameroon and Israel and thanked Ambassador Miki ARBEL for his contribution to the improvement of the cooperation and in particular for making the cooperation to directly benefit the people of Bamenda.
On behalf of the local medical staff and patients, the Director of the Bamenda Regional Hospital thanked MASHAV for its commitment to the health of disadvantaged people. He also thanked the Israeli doctors for their dedication to serve and for their selflessness.
On 26th July 2012, the doctors performed the final surgery. It was not scheduled. The patient was brought in on that same day from 500km away. A three months old baby. Mature cataract. This surgery, and indeed the whole camp, was an act from the heart.
