O'Sullivan

I was born in 1967, the eldest of 6 children. My parents are Irish and came to London in the 1960's from Southern Ireland. We were brought up in North London but I spent many summers in Ireland. As we were growing up we would often be told stories of my parent's childhood in Ireland and we would generally laugh at these and say that can't be true.

Classics were hearing how mum only got an orange for Christmas, or all they had to eat was spuds (potatoes) or how my father walked to school with no shoes. We used to say why didn't you wear your shoes, not realizing until many years later that he meant his family, (he was one of 9), couldn't afford to buy him shoes. His biggest incentive for going to school was that everyday in the winter the school would give each child a mug of hot chocolate or cocoa, as he still calls it to this day.

When I had finished my A levels I went to Liverpool Polytechnic to study for a sport's degree but during the first year I slipped a disc in my lower back and was advised to think of something else to do. This was a bit of a disaster because all I wanted do to was play netball and go canoeing. I set off to see the careers officer who made me fill out a questionnaire and the computer gave you 10 ideal jobs! The choice was Orthoptics and later that year I went off to Cardiff to complete the 3-year course.

After I had qualified I worked in the North of England for 3 years but often thought of working abroad for a year just to see a different side of life. There was an Orthoptic post advertised in East Jerusalem for one year, so I applied and was offered the job. I really had no idea of what to expect and people in England used to say, is it safe? I really didn't know but in the contract you could resign within the first six weeks without giving a reason, so I thought I would go for 6 weeks anyway! I stayed 2 ½ years and loved every minute of it. The hospital supported the Palestinian population of 2.2 million of which 1 million are refugees. The hospital was in East Jerusalem and in all my time there I only saw 3 Jewish children, such is the way in divided nations.

During my time at the hospital, politically it was very difficult; often the Palestinians would be put under curfew and not allowed to leave the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. It was the hospital policy, if the patients cannot come to us, we must go to them. Thereafter, began my regular visits to the refugee camps of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. I began to see a different sort of life and many hardships. People were denied health care purely for being a Palestinian. I still remember the small boy in Jabilia Camp in Gaza Strip, with congenital glaucoma, who was not allowed to travel to Jerusalem for essential surgery because his father was from Gaza, and therefore considered a security risk.

During many of these trips I traveled with Dr. Andy Pyott, who is a CBM Ophthalmologist now working in Cambodia. He began to tell me about CBM and encouraged me to apply, saying that Africa had a lack of trained eye care personnel. I had never heard of CBM but nevertheless I wrote to Germany and got back a letter informing me that I should visit Dr. Foster in London. I went off to see Allen Foster; (I had already taken a job in London). The rest as they say is history and so having only worked for 2 weeks in a NHS trust hospital, which was truly terrible, I told them I was resigning and going to Africa.

The first task from CBM was to go to France for 3 months and improve my French. As I remembered from school, French was not such an easy language. Still it was off to France and the language school. The 3 months passed and I could at least say something. Paul Caswell confidently informed me that only 2 words were necessary in French, J'ai faim- I'm hungry!

I was assigned to the Central Africa region and specifically Kinshasa as a Low Vision Therapist. I was supposed to go to Kinshasa in January 1997 but David McAllister decided in light of Kabila marching across Zaire, as it was then, that it was better to go and visit our Schools for the Blind in the rest of the region. So began a 9-month trip where I visited Rwanda, The Congo, Eastern Zaire, Chad and I went to Kinshasa in September 1997 and started the CBR project. Political events turned for the worst and in view of family concerns I asked to be moved from Kinshasa. It was hard to leave after having lived and worked there but in October 1998 we left for the last time. Last year I came to West Africa to continue the Low Vision service. The job continues to be rewarding and every day is different. And when I see a small boy in Africa going to school with no shoes I think of the small boy in Ireland who told me he only went to drink cocoa but actually did learn something!

Cameroon and my realization that 2/60 vision was really quite good!