44 days to The Gambia: Update

In forty-four days I leave for The Gambia with the Onesight Global Clinic Team. I am going on behalf of my employer, Spitfire Sunglass Design (USA) Inc. who donated over 4,000 sunglasses to Onesight in 2011.


Today I joined the team conference call and learned more about what we will be doing in The Gambia. This clinic will be unlike the others in that it is a "sustainability" clinic. This clinic is about development, assisting local organizations (such as Sight Savers International) and local people to be able to continue the eye-clinic work without Onesight, from eye-exams and distributing eye-wear, to producing the eye-wear.

The exciting thing is that the work we will be doing will not only help create sustainability clinics in The Gambia, people from the surrounding countries will be participating in the training too and setting up their own clinics in places like Senegal, Ghana, and Sierra Leone.

www.spitfire-design.com

Establishing permanent local clinics is important because in this area currently there is only about one ophthalmologist per million people. Not only do they need eye-wear but sunglasses are also important as many people contract cataracts which can lead to blindness.

I'm so grateful to be able to attend the clinic, to Spitfire and Onesight, as I've always wanted to go to Africa to work, not as a tourist. But that doesn't mean I won't take advantage of the time I have there. I recently purchased a new camera and hope to share many pictures on my blog and on Facebook. I also will be birding as The Gambia has some of the best birding in the world. I bought "The Birds of The Gambia and Senegal" and have found two great places to bird, The Abuko Nature Reserve and Tanji Bird Reserve.

So keep a look out for some great pictures, hopefully video too, coming soon.

Alexandra Gnoske is a nature lover, writer, author and blogger.