Ketema

I was born in 1956 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I come from an Orthodox Christian family. I did my primary and secondary school in Ethiopia. My father was always behind me to make sure that I did my homework. He was pushing me so hard that I finished high school at the age of 16.

I was secretly suffering from my father's pressure to learn more and always try to excel. As a child, I rather wished to become a footballer and a truck driver. Pele was still playing at that time, and my bedroom wall was full of his photos. I did well in school to please my father; and even better in football to please myself. Many dreams, including mine, were shattered when Mengistu Haile-Mariam overthrew Emperor Haile-Selassie and the Communist Red Terror was instituted all over the country. The pain my people had to pass through requires a separate book and cannot be described in one column in the West Africa Newsletter. Life continued, but this time, out of my country. My father, who has always been there to help, got me a scholarship to study medicine abroad & a legal passport so that I could leave the country through the national airport without a problem. As his last goodbye, he cited Einstein's words (when he declined the offer to become the president of Israel in 1952): "Politics is for the moment, …equation is for eternity." I understood the message and pursued my education in medicine.

I got my specialist degree in ophthalmology in 1992 from the Université de Nantes, in France. I then moved to a regional hospital in Metz, Lorraine, where I worked for four years.

I have been married since 1987. Our two children, Sarah and Yared, are now 8 & 7 years old. My wife, Sonja, is a nurse, specialising in anaesthesia & intensive care. She also has a diploma in tropical medicine. She has been working in a missionary hospital in Zaire as a volunteer. She has also served in Tigrai, Ethiopia. Before this, she worked for 13 years in her home country of Luxemburg.

I joined CBM in January 1997 and was supposed to help set up an eye nurse training school in Kinshasa. That was the period when things were tense in Zaire so I was sent to the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH), University College London. I found the courses in Survey Methods, Evaluation of Eye Care Programs & Planning in Community Eye Care particularly useful. The training in medical faculties is geared to enable the doctor to manage individual patients with little or no consideration for the overall community where the patient comes from; whereas, in ICEH one learns how to see eye pathologies from the community point of view.

After the courses in London, I was re-assigned to a CBR project in Niger. My assignment was to set up a permanently mobile outreach eye surgical care unit as well as train a national team which would takeover the work after my departure.

It was a big challenge. I had to start everything from scratch. Many things, including surgical instruments, were lacking in the project. There was neither a nurse, nor even a health assistant in the project to help me. The only thing in abundance was a whole mob of eye patients who awaited my attention. I began the work with two field workers. We started operating in makeshift operation theatres in elementary schools and primary health centres in the countryside. We had to carry clean tap water all the way from the capital of of Niamey, to wash our hands with. We operated up to 25 patients a day using a car battery to illuminate the surgical field.

We could improve our services as more surgical instruments, IOLs & other equipment like a portable autoclave, an operating table, an electric generator, were provided by CBM. Our project is now doing more surgeries than all of the nine ophthalmologists in the country combined. The year 1999 was, particularly, successful thanks to the new project director, Mr. Arne Utermark, who created a conducive working atmosphere in the project.

Our activities are now very well known among the rural population and appreciated by the local authorities. We have had a visit by the Minister of Health in 1998 while working in Dosso, some 150 km from the capital. Last week, the Governor of this same region paid us a visit as well; and the national radio & TV transmitted the event. The name of our project, as well as, that of CBM was mentioned in the report. The journalist concluded his report by saying: "There is nothing more humanitarian than giving sight to people." The journalist had his share of our humanitarian activities as we had successfully operated on his own mother two days prior to the event.

We have now a well-trained national eye care team in our project to takeover the eye work. Our eye nurse has received a good training in IOL implantation. The rest of the team is excellent in mobilising the population & organizing surgical eye camps (setting up makeshift operation theatres, handling surgical instruments, post-operative follow-ups, etc.)

My deep gratitude to CBM for this invaluable experience I have had in Niger. I am now awaiting a new assignment in another country. I am not afraid of starting everything from scratch one more time.