Looks like a modern eye center in North America, doesn’t it? Actually, I took this photo today in Benguela, Angola – home of the Boa Vista Eye Center. Boa Vista was launched in about 1994 by my Swiss colleague for Kalukembe Hospital, Urs Pedro Bierly. Today it is lead by John Clements, a Board-certified, fellowship trained ophthalmologist – the only one in Angola. Such individuals are relatively few, and in North America they earn quite favorable incomes. Against this tide, John approached me in 2010 about the possibility of serving here.
Now enter Jean-Pierre Brechet, the director of SOLE, an Angola-based NGO that supports Boa Vista. Jean-Pierre said to me in 2006, “Nick, wouldn’t it be wonderful if INMED could send an ophthalmologist to our nation? Think of the thousands of people blind from cataracts who would receive back their sight? Imagine the children whose vision would be corrected so they could learn to read? And consider the joy this would bring to our churches and to the heart of our God?”
For nine months John, along with his family, have been doing just this. And what’s more, they just requested to extend their commitment through 2015. Wonderful indeed!