BIO SKETCH
Dr Helena Ndume was born at Tsumeb and left the country for exile at age 15. There, she lived in Zambia, Gambia (where she completed secondary school) and Angola, before being sent to medical school in Germany.
She returned to Namibia in 1989, completed her medical internship at the Katutura and Windhoek Central hospitals, and with the encouragement of Dr Libertina Amathila, was then off again to Germany where she specialised in ophthalmology at the University of Leipzig. She later spent six months in India, where she learnt about and treated thousands of people with tropical diseases found mainly in the developing world.Her husband (who is also an eye specialist) introduced her to the ‘surgical eye expedition’ concept; and at a conference in the United States in 1995 (they were only dating at the time), they visited the booth of the US surgical eye expedition. She took their details, and contacted them when she returned home to Namibia the following year.By August 1997, with the help of ophthalmic medical assistant Flashman Anyolo, Ndume organised Namibia’s first eye camp at Rundu. At that camp, 210 patients were booked for the operation, but only 90 showed up, thinking that the promise of sight restoration sounded too good to be true. By the time they went back in 1998, people came in droves, having heard of the success of the previous camp.Since then, the project has been expanding, and is now held four to five times a year in different regions of the country. Ndume heads up the eye department at the Windhoek Central Hospital, and ascribes her success to the support of her family, her assistants, the staff in the hospitals where she works, and her ‘guiding angels’ (see main story).When she’s not operating on eyes and restoring eyesight, this mother of one enjoys mountain climbing and cooking. ‘I love trying out different dishes, that’s my hobby,’ she says.•NANGULA SHEJAVALI’WE can’t call ourselves a progressive nation if we still have people going blind from cataracts!’That’s the view of the dynamic, sight-saving, no-nonsense eye specialist, Dr Helena Ndume, who has become a household name in Namibia for the work she does in restoring sight to thousands of Namibia’s aged, blinded by cataracts.Sight restoration – most commonly associated with the miracles performed by Jesus in the Bible – is part of Dr Ndume’s daily routine. And the people that she treats and inspires every day see her as a ‘miracle doctor’.The elegantly stylish Dr Ndume, who was dissuaded by the likes of now Prime Minister Nahas Angula, Deputy PM Dr Libertine Amathila, and Works Minister Helmut Angula from becoming a fashion designer after high school, is one of Namibia’s six ophthalmologists.’When I look back, I thank God for these guiding angels, who changed the lives of many of the youth of that day,’ she says. At the time, Amathila was a medical doctor in the camps, Nahas Angula was a principal of a camp school and later became Swapo Secretary of Education, and Helmut Angula was Ndume’s science teacher.And perhaps we should thank them too, because without Dr Ndume, it’s likely that the more than 10 000 people whose sight she has restored through the eye clinics she started in 1997, might still have been blind.This year alone, her clinics at Oshakati, Katima Mulilo, at Onandjokwe, and in Engela – which bring in doctors from all over the world to work with her – have already brought sight to 924 people. In fact, so renowned are these clinics, that cataract patients even flock to them from neighbouring Angola to receive treatment. A fifth clinic was held at Gobabis this past weekend. The Namibian’s Nangula Shejavali sat down for an interview with the award-winning ‘miracle doctor’ at the Windhoek Central Hospital to gain some insight into her sight-saving work.Nangula Shejavali (NS): First and foremost, Doctor, congratulations on your Humanitarian Award from the Namibia Red Cross Society, which you received recently. Dr Helena Ndume (HN): Thank you. It really means a lot to me. I was really humbled … I thought that what I was doing was just a small token for the nation, and this award doesn’t only reflect my work, but also that of my colleagues, my hard-working and well-organised assistants, the nurses and hospitals, and all those involved in the prevention of blindness. Every time we receive these awards its very special, and I ‘d like to thank the Red Cross for recognising this work. NS: You’ve restored the sight of so many people. What kind of reaction do you get from your patients after you’ve conducted the operation, and suddenly they’re able to see again?HN: It’s really amazing. Some start singing and dancing, jumping, some start crying, and some start talking about their pension money that they will now be able to see. So much goes into organising these eye clinics, and here, I really have to highlight the work of Flashman Anyolo, who organises and takes part in every aspect of putting the eye clinics together. The process can become frustrating, and sometimes you just want to give up, but then you think of that old person sitting in the village unable to see when their sight can be restored. You think of the one eating fish, and having to debone it but unable to see what they’re doing. And you think of that old one that can finally see their grandchildren again after years of not being able to see. NS: Would you say that’s your inspiration?HN: Oh yes. No money in the world can pay for the happiness of the blind being able to see again. That’s what keeps us going back to restore and bring light where there was darkness.NS: Just waiting for and watching you and your staff work before this interview, I could see just how busy you are here. You just came in from the operating theatre, and you’ve already handled about five patients in a short the space of 45 minutes. Is this a typical day for you?HN: (Smiles) Yes, we are busy here. But the activities of each day differ. Together with two other colleagues here, some days we only do the eye clinics, sometimes theatre operations. We have to do ward rounds for the patients that have been admitted, and we do some small operations here also, lasers, and so on.NS: What kind of eye problems do you mostly encounter in your work?HN: There are so many types of diseases that we see, and operations that we carry out. But mainly cataracts and glaucoma. If presented early on, glaucoma can be managed. Cataracts on the other hand are mainly part of aging, and that can be treated by taking out the lens in the eye and replacing it with an artificial lens, usually up to five years after the onset of blindness. That’s what we do at the eye clinics. We also see more and more diseases caused by diabetes, especially with the growing middle class, and diets changing and bringing about diabetes, which can also affect the eyes. And we also deal a lot with allergic conjunctivitis, which, if picked up early can be treated, but can also cause blindness. That was the case with the little girl you just saw inside there (points to treatment room). She’s already lost most of her sight in her left eye, and now we really have to try to save the other eye. That’s one case where awareness of preventable blindness could really have helped, because if they had brought the child early, it could have been prevented.NS: What are Namibia’s needs when it comes to national eye care?HN: There is a serious need to create awareness amongst the population about preventable and non-preventable eye diseases. We also need to open more eye clinics in the regions, and to train more ophthalmic medical assistants. And we need many more facilities, machines, and so on. The Government has been trying, and we recently ordered a few machines. We also receive support from Safari Hotel, Air Namibia, the Ministry of Defence and the Red Cross in planning for the eye clinics. It takes a lot to put these clinics together, and we can’t do it alone. I also want to thank President Hifikepunye Pohamba for coming to see the project and to thank the visiting doctors when we conducted the clinic at Engela. The old people were so happy, and were ululating, sharing their jo
y with him, and you could see that he was moved.NS: And finally, in terms of eye care, what message do you have for the public?HN: My message is mainly for the youth. Young people should know to stay away from alcohol because the violence that can come of it is terrible. I wish the breweries could put alcohol in plastic bottles or cans instead because of the damage that young people are doing to each other with these glass bottles. There are so many patients whose eye(s) we’ve had to remove because of drunken fights, and so on. Previously, and in other countries, when this has to be done its because of accidents, and not these things.Immediately after our interview, Dr Ndume was called to see a patient who had just come in with a massively swollen and bruised eye. The young man told the doctor that he had been hit in the eye with a stone, outside a pub, and after a stern lecture and an eye examination, she told him just how lucky he was not to have lost his eye.nangula@namibian.com.na
