15 August 2024
In June this year, optometrist Adeil Yousaf left the busy streets of East London for a completely different setting – a regional hospital in the city of Dosso, Niger.
Flying into Niamey on behalf of Muntada Aid, Yousaf then travelled 140km south east to reach Dosso Regional Hospital, where he would be attempting to provide eye care and dispensing to up to 150 patients per day.
It was an experience that Yousaf describes as ‘humbling,’ and one that has made him increasingly grateful for the existence of the NHS.
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Yousaf recalls that in the village close to the hospital there were homes made of bamboo and wicker, and people living in tents.
“What attracted me to this project was the fact that we were genuinely going to the very poorest – those that needed help the very most,” he said.
While in Dosso, Yousaf was based in the hospital’s ophthalmology department and was focused on providing post-operative checks and refraction, dispensing glasses, and triaging any other queries that came his way.
He described the department as stretched, with five doctors and 850 cataract operations to be completed in the space of six days.
“You can imagine the sheer volume of people waiting and the pressure on the doctors, and likewise, the pressure on me as the only optometrist there,” Yousaf said.
Sometimes Yousaf and the two nurses assisting him would have 200 patients waiting to be seen outside the door of their testing room, he said.
Luckily, he explained, the nurses already knew the basics of refraction and were able to assist with that and other tasks.
Yousaf was able to take over 1000 pairs of spectacles from London to Niger to allow dispensing, he said.
“We were really there for the dispensing side, so whenever I saw a condition such as trachoma or glaucoma or a lens that had been displaced, I referred that patient via one of the nurses back to the doctors to get seen,” Yousaf said.
He shared the story of one of his patients, a 69-year-old man with seven children, who had not been able to ride his bike for many years due to cataracts, with OT.
“We did a refraction, and he was almost a minus seven prescription,” Yousaf said. “I remember seeing the smile on his face afterwards. He said to me “You have given my two eyes back.”
“We said to him, ‘what’s the first thing you’re going to do?’ He said, ‘I’m going to go and tell my wife that I have two new eyes.’’
Yousaf added: “That was really lovely to see. He went out into the hallway, where everybody else was waiting to be seen. He was speaking in his own language, and I didn’t understand what he was saying, but they were words of happiness. Seeing that was really, really amazing.”
Providing eye care in Niger
A promise realised
The trip to Niger was Yousaf’s first optometry volunteering trip – but his practice, Woodford Green’s Eyecare Express, is no stranger to helping out the local community.
Yousaf also travelled to Pakistan, where he is originally from, to provide humanitarian aid as a teenager after the 2005 earthquake.
He emphasised that the whole Eyecare Express team was part of his journey to Niger.
“Even though I travelled alone from Eyecare Express, it was a team effort arranging and preparing the whole programme,” he said, adding that thanks are owed to the practice staff and to his brother and co-director, Yassar.
The Niger trip was a long time coming – in fact, Yousaf had first met Muntada Aid CEO Naif Sheikh 15 years ago, when he was an optometry student at City, University of London.
Muntada Aid is a UK-based charity, which has performed around 4000 cataract operations, primarily in Africa, but also in Asia.
“I remember saying to him, ‘the minute I get my practice, and I’m up and running, I’ll be coming with you guys, and we’ll do whatever we can in the field of optometry,’” Yousaf said.
Previously a locum, Yousaf opened his optometry practice with his brother, Yassar, in January this year.
“Whether it was in Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Africa, or anywhere else, me and my brother both knew that once we had our own practice, we would want to be carrying out not just our day-to-day running of the business, but also a level of charitable work,” Yousaf said.
The success of the practice’s charitable giving during Ramadan spurred them on, he explained: “The satisfaction that one gains from giving was so immense that we decided we would transfer that to a bit more of an international scale. This opportunity arose, so we grabbed it with both hands.”
A handful of months on from opening the practice, it was time to dig out the Muntada Aid phone number.
“I was fortunate enough that within six to nine months of us having our practice, the opportunity arose. I remembered the CEO, and he remembered me. I dropped him a message, and the conversation went from there,” Yousaf said.
He added: “This was the first experience I’d had of optometry abroad as a charitable endeavor.
“The humbling effect that it gives you to realize the blessing you have in your sight, that maybe we take for granted here in the UK and in the Western world – the NHS, for example, that we maybe sometimes belittle. Going to Niger specifically really does allow you to appreciate how lucky and fortunate we are.”
Yousaf hopes that, should he volunteer abroad with Muntada Aid again, he will be able to take two or three other optometrists with him in order to allow more time for each patient.
A future volunteering trip could potentially see him travel to Mali, Chad or Bangladesh, but he explained that “wherever the opportunity arises, I’ll put my name forward.”
Yousaf is urging those who haven’t volunteered abroad, but are able to, to do so.
“When the opportunity is given, do grab it with both hands, because it can really change your perspective on life,” he said.
He added: “The satisfaction one gets from doing this kind of work cannot be compared to.”
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