Dr. Nir Seider, of our Department of Ophthalmology, returned from a fascinating trip to the refugee camp Kakuma, in the northwest of Kenya, near the border with Sudan. Dr. Seider and Dr. Drora Tzarfati of Ha'Emek Hospital in Afula were sent on this humanitarian mission by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with UNHCR.

Some 75,000 refugees from the Darfur Region, from southern Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia now live in this camp, near the city of Kakuma with a native population of 25,000.

Drs. Seider and Tzarfati treated 500 patients and operated on 60, mainly for cataract removal, returning sight to people made blind by their cataracts. The surgeries were performed under difficult conditions – from the point of view of weather [hot and dry] and the local hospital [crowded, lack of hygiene, periodic electricity breaks]. One night, they were forced to evacuate the camp because of flooding that swept away two nurses from the local hospital.