Five hundred patients from the Kavango East and Zambezi regions are expected to benefit from the national cataract surgical campaign launched in the regions on Monday.
The exercise is being jointly carried out by surgical teams from Windhoek Central Hospital, private doctors from Northern Vision Centre, and international medical volunteers from Germany and the United States. It runs until Friday and aims to restore sight to hundreds of patients.
“We operated on 99 patients (Saturday), yesterday (Sunday) we did 101 and in total we the aim to do 500 patients from Kavango East and Zambezi,” ophthalmologist Dr Helena Ndume says.
Zambezi region governor Dorothy Kabula, in her keynote address at the launch, stated that restoring eyesight for community members by Ndume is a noble exercise of national importance.
She added that based on available global health statistics, cataracts remain a leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide, accounting for 40% of visual impairment worldwide.
“Our current statistics covering the 2025/26 financial year indicate that Katima Mulilo State Hospital attended to 308 cataract patients,” the governor said.
Kabula indicated that a similar campaign conducted at Rundu last year restored 104 patients’ sight, but a backlog of 200 patients remains.
“I urge our specialists to continue doing their good job while restoring eyesight of the Namibian nation. Their job is not just an ordinary job, it is a gift from God.
“Cataract is one of the key drivers of loneliness, isolation, eventually causing depression among elders of our society as it takes away their productivity and prevents them from working,” Kabula said.
One of the patients operated on, Dominic Kupembona from Nyangana in the Kavango East region, expressed gratitude, saying he is happy that his left eye, which had vision problems, was restored on Sunday and that he can now see clearly.
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