Blindness Prevention

[Ms. Kathy]

Sun 17 Dec 2006

Their vision is stolen... but not their hope
Source: Scotland on Sunday: news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1873292006
JEREMY WATSON ([e-mail])
OUT of the glare of the baking African sun, in the cool darkness of a small concrete outhouse, three women are industriously engaged in the serious business of soap-making while Mohamed Kamara is explaining how he lost his sight.

From a small village near Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, he developed an eye infection, easily treated in western nations, while working as a baker. Like many in the second-most impoverished country in the world he was both distrustful of western medicine and thought he was unable to afford it.

"I went to the peh-peh [witch doctor], who said I was bewitched," Kamara said. "He boiled up some leaves and applied them to my eyes. It just made things worse and I totally lost my sight."

In West Africa, the blind are a burden on their families and in some cases are forced out on to the streets to beg. But there is an alternative; the projects set up by the Sierra Leone Association for the Blind (SLAB). Kamara sought out its help and is now the association's top soap salesman at Freetown's bustling King Jimmy Market.

His job involves buying the palm oil which is mixed with caustic soda and perfume to manufacture the bars that he sells on his rounds. Relentlessly cheerful, he describes himself as the "ambassador" for SLAB's soap-selling enterprise. "The job helps me feed and clothe myself," he said. "By now I would be a notorious street beggar if I hadn't come to SLAB. Now I'm proud to be a soap-maker."

SLAB's modest headquarters are just a few yards down the street from a giant cotton tree that dominates the central landscape of Freetown.

They are virtually the only community-based organisation working with the blind in a country of more than five million remotely scattered people. Being poor in Africa is not unusual but being poor and blind doubles the difficulties of surviving. Which is why Sightsavers International, a British charity which works to prevent blindness in 33 developing countries around the world, has chosen SLAB as one of its partners in war-ravaged Sierra Leone. As well as providing funding for river blindness eradication programmes and cataract operations, Sightsavers also supports local charities working with blind people.

"Our main purpose is to prevent blindness," said Dr Dennis Williams, an eye specialist and country representative for Sightsavers, the focus of Scotland on Sunday's Christmas appeal. "But we also want to help those already blind to be able to help themselves."

That task is in the hands of SLAB director Emma Parker, who is herself blind. "We train blind people to give them confidence and independence so that they can contribute to society," she said. "We train our people in braille reading and writing and trades such as weaving, carpentry, soap-making, baking and garment making."

So good has SLAB become at what it does that the government has now offered it a contract to teach sighted people in certain trades that will help take them off the poverty line.

Another SLAB success story is Marie Kanu, who also makes soap. Using touch alone, she stirs the soap and adds the perfume before placing it in frames to dry. Later, she will cut the soap into bars for Kamara to sell. She was blinded by measles at the age of nine months and grew up as a street beggar.

As a young woman, she was persuaded by her brother to seek help at the Freetown eye hospital. Unable to help after so long, she was referred to SLAB.

"They said they would teach me some new skills. I went home to think about it but decided I should come back and learn to do something."

She now has a permanent job at SLAB and is helping to run the project itself.

All around, blind people are busily engaged in jobs that help keep themselves and their families alive.

The strong frame of Hutcheson Chaytor, a former seaman blinded by glaucoma, is pounding dough in the bakery. In the weaving workshop, Maria Tu, who has four children, is hard at work on a dress. She developed glaucoma nine years ago and her husband died last year.

"Losing my sight was very sudden," she said, "and the greatest shame is that I will never see my children grow up. But I came here and they gave me a job and I am now teaching other people to knit."

As well as providing jobs at the SLAB project in central Freetown, "graduates" are encouraged to work from their homes to help provide a regular income.

Down a steep, rutted track past rows of mud-brick huts and tin shacks is the home of Rosamund Rogers,

where she and her friend Memunah Conteh are mixing dyes for garments they will later sell under the branches of a spreading tree.

Rogers lost her sight when she was 25 but SLAB has helped her find a purpose in life that helps her feed her family. "Losing your sight is a bad thing," she said. "But you have to find the will to go on. There are four of us normally - two have gone to church - and we have a lot of laughs together. We have been given the skills to make our garments and this gives us hope for the future."



Donations to assist Sightsavers International in its work to combat preventable blindness around the world can be made using the 24-hour donation line (0800 089 2020) or via its website.


Related topic

Sightsavers
business.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=726
This article: news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1873292006

[Ms. Kathy]

Prevention in sight
Opthamologist aims to raise glaucoma awareness
Rhonda Simmons
Culpeper Star Exponent
Saturday, January 6, 2007


Raising awareness is necessary to help in the battle against vision loss.

Because glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness globally, health officials joined Prevent Blindness Virginia, a nonprofit organization, to designate January as National Glaucoma Awareness Month.

The joint venture helps provide people with early detection information and ways to prevent the disease.

“It’s symptomatic and many people don’t even know they have it,” Dr. Russell Brear of Commonwealth Eye Center on Sunset Lane said Friday afternoon. “And without being tested you can lose significant vision and never really know it.”

Glaucoma is the eye disease that can diminish peripheral vision or result in total blindness if left untreated.

Holding his hands behind his ears, Brear says he can’t see them in that position.

“But I don’t miss it,” he added, Describing how people who suffer from glaucoma respond to the peripheral vision loss.

“Imagine if I move them forward. What you’d see, you’d see, and what you didn’t, you wouldn’t miss.”

According to Prevent Blindness Virginia representatives, more than 2 million Americans over 40 years of age have the disease and possibly 65 million suspected cases globally.

Some of the factors include, age, family history or previous medical ailments.

“If you are over the age of 55, quite simply you are at risk,” said Tim Gresham, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness Virginia. “In addition, Hispanic and African-American individuals, as well as those who are nearsighted or have ever had a serious eye injury are all at risk for the disease. There are even cases of infants being diagnosed with glaucoma.”

In his exam room, Brear demonstrated a glaucoma test on his 8-year-old son, Noah, using a biomicroscope, an instrument used for eye examinations.

The tonometer, an instrument used to measure tension or pressure, pushes slightly on the eyeball testing the rigidity of the eye, according to Brear. Prior to this exam, the doctor numbs the patient’s eye.

Brear received his medical degree from the University of Texas and interned at R.E. Thomason General Hospital in El Paso. He also completed his residency at Tulane University in New Orleans. After medical school, Brear opened his practice in Culpeper in 1985.

Prevent Blindness Virginia, a partnership with Prevent Blindness American, provides educational information and treatment options to help consumers learn about glaucoma.

“The Glaucoma Learning Center,” a free information page on www.preventblindness.org/glauoma, includes an array of resources including an adult vision risk evaluation and an interactive guide on how to take eye drops.

Generally, Brear suggests getting a glaucoma test, which only takes about 10 seconds, every two years at least.
“Blindness is totally preventable,” he added.

Rhonda Simmons can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 125 or [e-mail].

This story can be found at: www.starexponent.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CSE/MGArticle/CSE_MGArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192522234

[Ms. Kathy]

from photonics.com - 1/17/2007
www.photonics.com//content/news/2007/January/17/86047.aspx
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Eye Implants for Cats Could Help Blind Humans See


COLUMBIA, Mo., Jan. 17, 2007 -- Tiny eye implants that allow the blind to see have mainly been confined to the realm of science fiction, but now preliminary studies using a microchip implant to help blind cats "see" holds promise for improving impaired human sight as well.
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University of Missouri-Columbia veterinary ophthalmologist Kristina Narfstrom with one of the Abyssinian cats subject to hereditary blindness that she is helping through the use of eye implants. (Photos: University of Missouri-Columbia)
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Kristina Narfstrom, a University of Missouri-Columbia veterinary ophthalmologist, is working primarily with Abyssinian and Persian cats that are affected with hereditary retinal blinding disease. The cat's eye is a good model to use for this type of research because it is very similar to a human eye in size and construction, so surgeons can use the same techniques and equipment. Cats also share many of the same eye diseases with humans. The Abyssinian cats in the study typically start to lose their sight when they are around 1 or 2 years old and are completely blind by age 4.

Narfstrom said the preliminary results of her research are promising.
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The microchip is implanted inside the retina, where it produces small electrical impulses that help the patient see.
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"About one in 3500 people worldwide is affected with a hereditary disease, retinitis pigmentosa, that causes the death of retinal cells and, eventually, blindness," Narfstrom said. "Our current study is aimed at determining safety issues in regard to the implants and to further develop surgical techniques. We also are examining the protection the implants might provide to the retinal cells that are dying due to disease progression with the hope that natural sight can be maintained much longer than would be possible in an untreated patient."

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The microchip, seen here in an extreme closeup, includes several thousand microphotodiodes that react to light and produce small electrical impulses in parts of the retina.
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To date, Narfstrom, the Ruth M. Kraeuchi-Missouri Professor in Veterinary Ophthalmology, has performed surgeries in severely visually impaired or blind cats. During the surgery, Narfstrom makes two small cuts into the sclera, the outer wall of the eyeball. After removing the vitreous, which is the gelatinous fluid inside the back part of the eyeball, she creates a small blister in the retina and a small opening, large enough for the microchip, which is just two millimeters in diameter and 23 µm (one millionth of a meter) thick. The chip includes several thousand microphotodiodes that react to light and produce small electrical impulses in parts of the retina.

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A view of the microchip that is helps the visually impaired or blind see through the use of electric impulse producing microphotodiodes. The chip is being tested on cats and holds promise for improving vision in humans with retinal blindness.
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"We are really excited about the potential uses for this technology and the potential to create improved vision in some of the millions of people affected worldwide with retinal blindness," Narfstrom said. "This technology also may be beneficial for pets that have similar diseases because this technology can benefit both animals and humans."

Narfstrom is working with Optobionics Corp., the Naperville, Ill.-based company that developed the device, with Emory University researcher Machelle Pardue and the Research Service at the VA Medical Center in Atlanta.

For more information, visit: research.missouri.edu/news/index.htm


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from photonics.com - 1/17/2007
www.photonics.com/content/news/2007/January/17/86047.aspx
video clip about research on
retinal implants at the University of Missouri-Columbia
is at the URL

www.livescience.com/php/video/player.php?video_id=bionicateye

[Ms. Kathy]

Lion's Roar
ManchesterJournal.com
The Manchester Journal
Article Launched:


Friday, January 19

MANCHESTER - The Manchester Lions are proud to announce that Joe Charbonneau will be coordinating the local SightFirst II Project in Lions Clubs International's worldwide campaign to combat avoidable blindness.

This campaign will expand and enhance Lions' SightFirst I program, which has saved more than 24 million people from severe vision loss since its launch in 1990. Lions have long been champions of the blind, but SightFirst I has taken their sight work to a new level.

Funded with $143 million raised by Lions in 1991-94, it was the first coordinated, worldwide effort of its kind and moved Lions to the forefront in the international effort to eliminate avoidable blindness. Its projects have provided free cataract surgery to 4.6 million people, 65 million yearly treatments for blindness caused by infectious diseases, and eye-care training for 68,000 health workers in developing countries. The funds raised through Campaign SightFirst II will continue SightFirst's I work and expand its scope to combat emerging threats to sight, including river blindness, glaucoma and diabetic eye disease.

Lions Clubs International is the world's largest service club organization with nearly 1.4 million members in 46,000 clubs in 193 countries and geographic areas. In addition to its efforts toward conquering blindness, the organization has made a strong commitment to community service and helping youth throughout the world.

If any one is interested with financially assisting with this worthy cause, contact Joe at 362-2629 or send a tax deductible check payable to the Manchester Lions Club, Sight First II Fund at P.O. Box 1189, Manchester Center, VT 05255.

[Ms. Kathy]

January 14, 2007

Smoking, obesity add to risk of blindness
Behaviors increase chance of losing eyesight in people predisposed to macular degeneration
By Duncan Moore
Bloomberg News
January 14, 2007


People with a genetic predisposition to developing macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness, multiply the risk of losing their sight by smoking and gaining excessive weight, a study reported.
More than 1.6 million Americans older than 60 have advanced age-related macular degeneration, according to the National Eye Institute. The study, published in the January issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, attempts to quantify how the combination of genetics and lifestyle might affect a person's risk of going blind from the disease.
"It's not one thing that causes macular degeneration. It's a combination of your genes and what you do," said Debra Schaumberg, lead author of the study. "Your risk is increased additionally whether you are obese or you are a cigarette smoker."
Scientists have determined in the past two years that two genetic variants associated with age-related macular degeneration are common among whites in the U.S.
Carriers of one of the variant genes, CFH, are four times as likely to develop the disease. If they smoke, their risk is eight times higher, and if they smoke and are overweight, their risk is 12 times higher.
For carriers of the second variant gene, LOC, the risk is six times higher even if they don't smoke and 22 times higher if they do.
The study used a database of 121,700 mostly female nurses who were 30 to 55 years old in 1976, plus a database of 51,529 mostly male physicians who were 40 to 75 years old in 1986.
The researchers tracked their incidence of macular degeneration as they aged and linked it to their behavioral risk factors as reported in a series of questionnaires about smoking and body weight.
The chance that an individual has a variant form of the genes is quite high, said Schaumberg, who is affiliated with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the Harvard Medical School. About 58 percent of the white population have the CFH variant, and 34 percent have the LOC variant.
If people carrying the genes raise their risk profile from four times as likely to 22 times as likely just because they smoke, "that's a very different message" for the general public, Schaumberg said.
"Everybody should know that these risky behaviors of obesity and smoking are more dangerous than we thought, in terms of macular degeneration," she added.

[Ms. Kathy]

writers on the range
Solution is in Mexico
By Richard Collins
Denver Post

Sonoita, Ariz.

Angelica, a dark-haired young woman, smiled and looked straight ahead. She was wearing a new dress and shoes and sat behind a table in the schoolhouse of a remote village in the mountains of Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.

"Mi esposo se fue al norte," she replied, when a health worker asked why her husband had been absent during the last treatment rounds for a disease called river blindness.

In Chiapas, the government health service is giving out the drug Mectizan free of charge to everyone in this coffee-growing region. To prevent others from getting the disease, everyone must be treated, and the authorities were concerned about the many absentees, most of them young men.

River blindness is a disease transmitted by blood-feeding black flies that develop as larvae in the small streams trickling down the steep, volcanic mountains. These flies exist only in Mexico and Guatemala, so the disease is not a threat to the United States.

"Norte," or north, is their word for the United States. Her husband had left their tight-knit ejido community four years ago to make the dangerous journey, seeking a better life for Angelica and their four children. They knew he had arrived safely because she had been receiving money orders regularly. Still, she was concerned about raising their children alone and had moved in with her in-laws. Here, family bonds are the bedrock of community structure; family is the only institution they can trust.

Angelica's situation is not unusual. Many men from the Chiapas highlands, and from rural communities throughout Mexico, have gone. Sometimes the whole family goes with them. A few have vanished, never to be heard from again.

Walking through the village, the health workers pointed out houses belonging to families whose men had successfully made the journey. Those homes had solid doors and windows, electricity and TV dishes on the roofs. At the village center, I paused to watch a soccer game taking place on a cracked slab of cement.

One of the smaller boys, his thick black hair combed into a forward cowlick, dominated the game. He raced over the rough court, bouncing off the other players to take passes and score goals, after which he trotted down the field to receive high fives from his teammates. This future Pele wore a sparkling new pair of Nikes with red swooshes, while the other boys chased him barefooted.

Many U.S. citizens are rightly concerned about illegal immigration - why it happens and how it can be prevented. More than 1 million illegal immigrants are apprehended along the border each year, and in the Tucson sector alone, 400,000 are caught. Yet the Border Patrol estimates that untold thousands attempt the dangerous crossing over and over again, until they finally make it.

The truth is that illegal immigration happens because people want a better life and their country has failed to give them the opportunities they need.

In Mexico, the country's vast wealth and rich resources are concentrated in the hands of the few, while millions live in poverty. Given the basic human drives to better oneself and provide for a family, no iron wall or border army can stop the exodus that has been occurring in biblical proportions. Only internal reform in Mexico can change this well-established pattern, yet Mexico's leaders almost always include many who enrich themselves by maintaining the status quo.

For America, the leaky border has provided hidden benefits which our politicians and others have failed to fully acknowledge. Among these is an eager labor force highly motivated for the right reasons to do the work Americans no longer care to do. More importantly, it has been a safety valve of hope, without which Mexico might well have exploded in violent revolution - as it did in the early 1900s, and as occurred throughout Central America less then 30 years ago.

To be desperately poor without hope that things can get better is a tragic and dangerous situation for all of us.

Field biologist Richard Collins writes from his ranch in Sonoita, Arizona, near the border with Mexico. He is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News in Paonia (hcn.org).
Source LinK: www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_5139740

[Ms. Kathy]

Brunei too in 'flying eye' hospital

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Dozens of Southeast Asian eye care specialists are learning the latest methods to fight blindness and other eye maladies on a "flying eye hospital" plane in Malaysia, organisers said Friday.
The two-week training aboard ORBIS International's hospital, a converted DC-10 aircraft with operating rooms and volunteer doctors, began Monday at the Kuching city airport in Malaysia's eastern Sarawak state on Bo island, an ORBIS statement said. Participants include 60 ophthalmologists from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore, as well as about 120 Malaysian nurses and health workers.

"We aim to bring quality eye health care services to where the need is greatest, while raising public awareness in the region in an effort to prevent future avoidable blindness," said the hospital's director, Drew Boshell.

"Over the two-week programme, several surgeries will be carried out on the flying eye hospital to expose ophthalmologists from all over Southeast Asia to the latest sight-saving techniques," Boshell said.

Source Link: www.brunei-online.com/weekend/news/feb3h3.htm

[Ms. Kathy]

Party races against blindness
Source link: www.kcchronicle.com/articles/2007/02/20/news/local/doc45d9873a635a6792245178.txt

By KAREN LONG - [e-mail]

SOUTH ELGIN -- When Mark Dobrzynski lived in Charlotte, N.C., NASCAR was a way of life.

He even had brushes with its stars.

“I used to see Rusty Wallace driving around town all the time,” he said, adding that he also saw Jeff Gordon at a mall.

Dobrzynski, 44, of Bartlett shared his passion by organizing the South Elgin Lions Club’s first Daytona 500 fundraiser. Money from the event will go to Campaign SightFirst II, a program to eradicate the causes of blindness worldwide.

The campaign’s goal is for Lions Clubs to raise $150 million, which will help the program prevent blindness and restore sight, according to the Lions Clubs International Web site.

The program received more than the $25 ticket cost from Angie DeLeon, 38, of South Elgin.

DeLeon won a $200 prize and donated $100 of it to Campaign SightFirst II.

“Being as we didn’t get the turnout we wanted, I wanted to make sure we had something to give to [the program],” said DeLeon, who is the South Elgin Lions Club’s treasurer.

Turnout was a group of Lions Club members and their friends, but Dobrzynski already had plans to add more advertising for next year’s event.

Erik Pierce, 36, of Lake in the Hills joined a friend watching the big-screen TVs at the Lions Club building. Pierce knows what it’s like to win car races. In 2006, he won the Performance Unlimited sportsman division championship at Lake Geneva Raceway.

Pierce said he was rooting for Dale Earnhardt Jr., but added that the race was tough to win.

“This is pretty much luck,” he said.

[Ms. Kathy]

Cornea transplant in focus
Posted: Tuesday, February 20, 2007




Muscat


Oman's Ministry of Health Ministry is to push cornea donation and transplant programmes more effectively.

Dr Ali bin Mohammed bin Moosa, Minister of Health, says: "The current five-year plan of the ministry addresses the problem of corneal blindness. Action is being taken to establish an Eye Bank with dedicated staff trained to enucleate the cornea from dead bodies, evaluate and preserve them."

"Once the Eye Bank is established, more programmes will be launched to create public awareness through mass media, so that volunteers can pledge to donate their eyes (after death) and register themselves for the same in advance". Al Nahdha Hospital alone has "more than 350 registered patients on the waiting list for eye transplantation".

Once the proposed eye bank is set up, people suffering from curable blindness can benefit from eye transplant services on a bigger scale and the whole world will be opened up for them again, the Oman Daily Observer reported.

Underlining the need to develop and deepen awareness about the usefulness of cornea donation, the minister said an awareness-raising campaign to promote corneal donation is key to the success of corneal transplantation programmes in Oman. The minister said, "The success rate of corneal transplantation, depending on the condition of the eye before surgery, is over 95 per cent in many cases. Corneal transplantation is indicated in patients with keratoconus, corneal opacities, corneal degeneration and dystrophy, corneal ulcers and corneal injuries short-listed for Keratoplasty." "These are important causes of curable blindness after cataract in Oman. These cases are good candidates for treatment through corneal transplantation."

Doctors say reasons for needing a cornea transplant vary. The transparent cornea tissue is very thin just half a millimetre thick and when damaged by injury or disease it can become cloudy or lose its natural shape, both of which can lead to blindness or limited sight. Among older people who account for the majority of cornea transplants age-related or inherited conditions are common reasons for needing a transplant. Young people often need a transplant due to a disease called keratoconus, in which the cornea becomes progressively thinner and misshapen, while herpes, the cold sore virus, can also cause scarring if the corneas become infected.

So far a total of 135 corneal transplants have been performed in Oman. Corneal transplantation facilities have been in place at Al Nahda Hospital since 1980. But the shortage of donated corneas means that many more could be given the opportunity to see again, if there were more donors. Sadly many corneas that could be donated go to waste because people have not registered themselves with Al Nahdha Hospital. With the establishment of a new eye bank, things are expected to change for the better, provided people also come forward and pledge to donate their eyes after they pass away to their heavenly abode to give to sightless people the amazing gift of sight.-TradeArabia News Service



Source link: www.tradearabia.com/tanews/newsdetails_snHEAL_article119221.html

[Ms. Kathy]

Carter expanding "human rights"
Source Link: Denver Post www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_5260665
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times
Denver Post
Article Last Updated:

Jimma, Ethiopia

Presidents are supposed to be strong, and on his latest visit to Africa, Jimmy Carter proved himself strong enough to weep.

The first stop of Carter's four-nation African trip was Ghana, where he visited his projects to wipe out the Guinea worm, a horrendous 2-foot-long parasite that lives inside the body and finally pops out, causing excruciating pain.

Carter was shaken by the victims he met, including a 57-year-old woman with a Guinea worm coming out of her nipple.

"She and her medical attendants said she had another coming out her genitals between her legs, and one each coming out of both feet," Carter added. "And so she had four Guinea worms emerging simultaneously."

"Little 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children were screaming uncontrollably with pain" because of the worms emerging from their flesh, Carter said. "I cried, along with the children."

We tend to think of human rights in terms of a right to vote, a right to free speech, a right to assembly. But a child should also have a right not to suffer agony because of a worm that is easily preventable, as well as a right not to go blind because of a lack of medication that costs a dollar or two, even a right not to die for lack of a $5 mosquito net.

As president, Carter put the issue of human rights squarely on the national agenda. Now Carter argues - and he's dead right - that we conceive of human rights too narrowly as political and civil rights, and that we also need to fight for the human right of children to live healthy lives.

He has led the way in waging that battle. Because of Carter's two-decade battle against Guinea worm disease, it is expected to be eradicated worldwide within the next five years. It will be the first ailment to be eliminated since smallpox in 1977, and it has become a race between the worm and the ex-president to see which outlasts the other.

"I'm determined to live long enough to see no cases of Guinea worm anywhere in the world," Carter said as he walked in blue jeans through a couple of villages in a remote corner of southwestern Ethiopia, the third country of his African tour.

After leaving the White House, Carter ended up "adopting" diseases like Guinea worm disease, river blindness, elephantiasis, trachoma and schistosomiasis that afflict the world's most voiceless people. These are horrific diseases that cause unimaginable suffering, yet they rarely get attention, treatment or research funding because their victims are impoverished and invisible.

When Carter met with Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, then Pakistan's president, Zia had never heard of Guinea worm and didn't know it existed in Pakistan.

Nor did his health minister. But after Carter put the issue on the agenda, Pakistan worked energetically with the Carter Center to eliminate the parasite in that country.

The villages here in Ethiopia that Carter visited cradle a fast-moving creek, making a lovely image of thatch huts and bubbling water. But the creek is home to the black flies whose bites spread the parasite that causes river blindness, leading to unbearable itching and often eventually to blindness.

"It's almost impossible to imagine the suffering of people with river blindness," Carter said as he traipsed through the village beside his wife, Rosalynn.

Already, Carter's campaign is making huge progress against the disease.

Kemeru Befita, a woman washing her clothes in the creek near Carter, told me that two of her children had caught river blindness in the last couple of months. After a visit to the witch doctor didn't help, she took them to a clinic where - thanks to Carter's program - they received medicine that killed the baby worms. They are two of the nearly 10 million people to whom the Carter Center gave medication last year alone, who won't go blind.

At the end of the day, this one-term president who left office a pariah in his own party will transform the lives of more people in more places over a longer period of time than any other recent president. And I hope that he can also transform our conception of human rights, so that we show an interest not only in the human rights of people suffering from the oppression of dictators, but also from the even more brutal tyranny of blindness, malaria and worms.

[Ms. Kathy]

Stanford Medical Student is Visionary Behind Global Fight Against Blindness
Feb 27 2007, 1:33 PM EST
Business Wire
Source Link: www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=13472896

Six years ago, as a 19-year-old college sophomore, Jennifer Staple decided to battle preventable blindness so she started the nonprofit "Unite for Sight" with a staff of one: herself.

What began with the recruitment of a few fellow Yale University students to join her crusade against blindness among the homeless of New Haven, Conn., has since burgeoned into the recruitment of volunteers worldwide who have helped restore sight to thousands of impoverished blind people.

"I never anticipated it would actually go beyond homeless people in New Haven," said Staple, who is herself a bit overwhelmed by Unite for Sight's success.

From her dorm room on the Stanford University campus where she's now a second-year medical student, Staple coordinates some 4,000 volunteers. Unite for Sight now has 90 chapters in 25 countries. It provides services to 400,000 low-income patients, and has sponsored more than 6,000 sight-restoring surgeries, a number that grows weekly.

On April 14-15, the nonprofit's fourth annual conference will bring 1,500 people interested in global health-care issues to Stanford to hear 300 experts discuss subjects that range from individual eye care to organizing nonprofits to the fight against malaria and AIDS.

"They say, 'Life is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things,'" said Tamilarasan Senthil, MD, an ophthalmologist who directs Unite for Sight in India. "Jennifer is one among them."

Staple, a quiet warrior, volunteers 40 hours a week for Unite for Sight, responding to about 100 daily e-mails in between her medical school studies. She postponed medical school, asking to defer her acceptance to Stanford for two years, to get Unite for Sight up on its feet and rolling.

"Her dedication to and stewardship of Unite for Sight were exactly the skills and attitudes we wished to see in our future medical students and physicians," said Gabriel Garcia, MD, associate dean of admissions at the Stanford School of Medicine. "We were delighted to grant her request for deferment."

And Staple's enthusiasm for the program shows no signs of waning.

"I love every day of it," she said. "I love hearing the stories from the international ophthalmologists, hearing reports from all the volunteers in the field who are so excited about their jobs." And, most of all, hearing the stories of the people whose sight is restored.

James Clarke, MD, one of Unite for Sight's ophthalmologist partners in Ghana, Africa, talks of his patients "dancing with excitement, tears streaming down their faces," after their sight-restoring surgeries.

"Unite for Sight came to Ghana, Africa, at the right time to bring hope to the hopeless," Clarke wrote in an e-mail from Ghana. "It is a savior of the blind."

The idea behind the organization was originally sparked while Staple was working a summer job after her freshman year at Yale in the office of her childhood ophthalmologist. She grew up in New Haven.

"I'd see low-income patients suffering from glaucoma who had already become blind," Staple said. "They regretted not going to the eye doctor sooner. I saw firsthand the importance of educating people."

In the early days, Staple and her small troop of about 35 volunteers went out into the community, visiting soup kitchens and public libraries in New Haven armed with eye charts and educational materials. The majority of eye damage can be prevented with a little education and some fairly low-cost care, Staple said. Amazingly, 80 percent of blindness is preventable or treatable, according to research sponsored by the World Health Organization.

The volunteers would match up poor patients with free health-care programs primarily through the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Optometric Association, which Staple discovered through Internet searches. After awhile, people in other parts of the world started reaching out to Unite for Sight through Internet connections asking for help.

"We were connected electronically through thousands of e-mails before I actually met Jennifer at the Unite for Sight conference at Yale in April 2006," said Senthil, who runs Unite for Sight's partner eye clinic in Chennai, India. "I think we form a great team to help eradicate blindness from the world."

Staple made her first visit to one of the overseas clinics last summer. She visited patients in remote villages surrounding Chennai where Unite for Sight has been working for two years. In Chennai, the organization partners with the local Uma Eye Clinic, providing funds for impoverished patients to have sight-restoring surgeries so that no patient remains blind because of a lack of money. It also sends international volunteers who serve as support staff. The volunteers along with the eye clinic's optometrists and ophthalmologists jointly provide eye care in the rural villages. Those requiring surgery are brought to the eye clinic in town. Similar programs now exist throughout India.

"It's incredible to meet some of these patients," Staple said. She saw villagers whose five- to 10-minute cataract surgeries changed their lives.

"They get off the operating table and they can see again," Staple said. "I saw one patient who was so happy, she had tears. I saw so many big grins, villagers putting their hands together as in prayer. They're so happy to see their villages and families for the first time in years."

So many poor patients in rural areas are unaware that their blindness may be curable or preventable, Staple said. And even those who are aware of eye care services will often not pursue treatment because of fear or expense. Unite for Sight's mission is to help change that. Since its early days, the organization's mission has expanded to include targeting more than 36 million people with undiagnosed and untreated cases of preventable blindness, including those suffering eye damage as a result of atrocities committed against them.

Staple has no intention of slowing down her work with Unite for Sight as she winds her way through the rigors of medical school. She does have plans of someday becoming an ophthalmologist herself.

"Seeing people with such joy on their faces after they have their eyesight restored, there's nothing like it," Staple said.

Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical education and patient care at its three institutions -- Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. For more information, please visit the Web site of the medical center's Office of Communication & Public Affairs at mednews.stanford.edu.

[Ms. Kathy]

Illegal 'vodka' blindness warning
Fake vodka produced at an illegal bottling plant which could cause blindness has been found on sale in a south Wales pub.
Thousands of litres of counterfeit "Christoff Vodka" have been uncovered at the factory in Cardiff.

But a bottle had already been spotted in a Bridgend pub before news emerged of the plant. There are also reports of four bottles in a Blaenau Gwent shop.

Consumers have been warned to beware and not to drink it.

Initial tests of the vodka showed it had a methanol content many times what is permitted.

"It has a high methanol content which is harmful and can cause blindness," said a Cardiff trading standards spokesman.

The illegal factory, on the Curran Embankment, Grangetown, was uncovered by HM Revenue and Customs in a raid on Thursday.


It is not vodka and should not be consumed
Steven Hay, trading standards

Officers said it was the biggest seizure of illicit alcohol they had made for some time
Three Polish men arrested in connection with the find were released without charge.

The factory was being dismantled by customs officers.

Despite officials warning people who have bought "Christoff Vodka" to pour it away, as it could contain methylated spirits, public protection officers have discovered at least one pub selling the product.

The Bridgend pub was found to have the drink after trading standards officers spotted it for sale and went back to investigate.

Matthew Voisey, Bridgend Council cabinet member for the environment, said: "People should be aware of the potential dangers of cheap or unfamiliar brands of spirits and report any concerns.

"If you have purchased the vodka, do not drink it. Any traders with bottles of the vodka in stock should remove them from sale immediately."

Early indications at the discovery of the illegal bottling plant showed that a quantity had left the factory for distribution, according to trading standards.

Official Steven Hay said: "The general public and traders across south Wales and beyond should be on the lookout for this particular brand of 'vodka'.

"It is not vodka and should not be consumed."

On Thursday Kathryn Corcoran, from HM Customs, said the vodka seizure was a "big operation".

Ms Corcoran said 5,000 bottles had been found "labelled and ready to go" and vats containing thousands more litres which were waiting to be bottled, equating to about £500,000 in lost revenue altogether.

Officers also found methylated spirits and industrial alcohol in the warehouse.

Mr Hay appealed for anyone who has any '1806 Christoff 100% Pure Vodka' in their possession or knows where any of the illicit alcohol is to get in touch with Cardiff trading standards or their local trading standards service.

Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6411951.stm

Published: 2007/03/02 16:14:48 GMT

© BBC MMVII

[Ms. Kathy]

OCULAR SURGERY NEWS U.S. EDITION March 1, 2007

Optometry, ophthalmology groups agree on children’s vision care legislation

Federal bill aims to establish state grants to provide exams and follow-up care for uninsured children.

By Daniele Cruz
WASHINGTON — Several bills proposing funding for children’s vision care have failed to make their way through Congress in recent years, but a new bill carries more hope of passing, according to vision care advocates.


Jean E. Ramsey
The bill, HR-507, takes a new approach to providing follow-up care for children aged 9 years and younger, said pediatric ophthalmologist Jean E. Ramsey, MD, who is also a representative of the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Secretariat for State Affairs.

Dr. Ramsey and others spoke during a Congressional Vision caucus briefing at the Rayburn House Office Building here Jan. 29. She said ophthalmologists and optometrists generally have not seen “eye to eye” when it comes to vision care legislation for children, but this bill was born from a collaborative effort by the two groups.

“It is nice to see Republicans and Democrats working together, but it is really nice to be in this room and see optometrists and ophthalmologists working together,” said U.S. Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla.

A joint effort
The American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Optometric Association have been joined in the effort by Prevent Blindness America, the Vision Council of America and the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.

“We need to put aside our differences and come together, and that is exactly what has happened. This bill is supported by all the major eye care professional organizations, and that is no small feat. The planets are aligned,” Dr. Ramsey said. “This is the time to vote for this bill. The people in the vision field who are here today realize that our goal is for children to be able to see, have normal vision and not end up [spending] the rest of their lives with severe vision loss or profound vision loss in one or both eyes, especially for something that could have been treated.”

Historically, the optometric community has pushed for legislation mandating comprehensive eye exams for all children, while the ophthalmic community supported legislation that mandated screening with appropriate follow-up for children with vision problems. The new legislation would provide states with grants to fund eye exams by an eye care professional — optometrist or ophthalmologist — for children identified as needing such services, with priority given to children younger than 9 years of age, Dr. Ramsey said.

“Children can be identified as needing follow-up care either through a vision screening or a comprehensive eye examination. We are not going down that route. It is a complicated route, and we are going to leave that for the states to decide,” Dr. Ramsey said. “Once the child has been identified and the child does not have insurance and no way to pay for this, that is where these grant funds will kick in, so many states now are stepping up.”

Children’s vision statistics
Of the 20% of children who have a learning disability, 70% have vision problems, according to Andrea P. Thau, OD, FAAO, FCOVD.

“Nearly 4 million children nationwide have impaired vision,” she said. “There are so many children now being labeled as having learning problems, and the vast majority of them have never had their eyes checked.”

Dr. Thau said most parents take their children to the dentist at 6 months of age, but “while teeth are important to well-being and development, vision is crucial, and we have only a certain window of time to make sure that their brains develop normal vision.”

Vision disorders are the leading disabling condition in children, according to Dr. Thau.

“But most of these conditions are treatable and preventable,” she said. “Vision impacts everything. It impacts how you develop motor skills and social development, and these children go on to need tremendous amounts of services. The key issue here is identifying these children and getting them the care they need.”

Some of the vision disorders affecting children include amblyopia, strabismus, congenital cataracts and glaucoma, said Dr. Ramsey.

“Children with undiagnosed vision disorders can become frustrated in school and labeled with learning disorders or behavioral problems. Through early detection and treatment by a licensed eye care professional, however, the effects of these conditions can be minimal, and in some cases completely corrected if caught soon enough,” said Daniel D. Garrett, senior vice president of Prevent Blindness America. “Unfortunately, far too many children are not accessing the vision care they need, and their families aren’t as well. According to some estimates, only 20% of children are getting vision screenings prior to school, and only 14% are getting comprehensive eye exams prior to school entry.”

Early detection
Dr. Ramsey said people often wonder why the age of 9 was selected as the cut off for mandatory screening.

“They wonder why we cannot wait until children are 11 or 12 years old to be tested,” she said. “Before 8 or 9 years old is when these problems develop, and conversely, it is the only time we can treat them. If you get to it early, the baby may have good useful vision. If not, the baby can have a lifetime of blindness.”

U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, co-chairman of the Congressional Vision Caucus, said, “Early detection is important, but unless we can follow up [with funding], it does not work. That is why this is so important. This is one I think we can pass [through] this Congress with the support.”

In general, the grant funds would be directed at the children who need it most who have been identified through whatever process the state decides is a high-risk child. Up to 20% of the funds that are granted to a state could be used for education for health practitioners, teachers and parents, Dr. Ramsey said.

“I am hoping that having this program in place will spur other states to develop screening programs,” she said.

Dr. Ramsey is co-director of the Massachusetts preschool vision-screening project, where they successfully passed a legislative mandate for children to get screened.

For more information:
Jean E. Ramsey, MD, can be reached at Yawkey Ambulatory Care Center, 850 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02118; 617-414-4020; fax: [phone]; e-mail: [e-mail].
Andrea P. Thau, OD, FAAO, FCOVD, can be reached at 77 Park Ave., New York, NY 10016; 212-685-2457; fax: [phone]; e-mail: [e-mail].
Daniel D. Garrett, senior vice president of Prevent Blindness America, can be reached at 211 W. Wacker Drive, Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60606; 312-363-6032; fax: [phone]; e-mail: [e-mail].
Daniele Cruz is an OSN Staff Writer who covers all aspects of ophthalmology, focusing on optics, refraction and contact lenses.

[Ms. Kathy]

Life & Art - Giving Sight to the Blind
Source Link: allafrica.com/stories/200702240119.html
The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
NEWS
February 24, 2007
Posted to the web February 24, 2007

By Yelibenwork Ayele
Addis Ababa

For Yezina, a three-year-old girl born in Debre Markos, the world had always been swallowed up in total darkness.

She had never seen the light of day or the beautiful colors of nature. Or, worst of all, she had never seen her parents. But that was only until she had a simple, 25-minute-long operation on her cataract-blindal eyes by a team of ophthalmologists led by Mr. Kalus Kupke, founder of vision 2005.

There are more than 1.2 million blind people in Ethiopia, a shocking number for about 80 to 90 percent of those do not need to go blind as their blindness could be treated or prevented if discovered in time. But there are only about 75 ophthalmologists (eye doctors) in Ethiopia for a population of over 75 million. That is one eye-doctor for one million people.

The secondary eye-unit in Debre Markos Hospital, constructed and furnished by Christian Blind Mission (CBM) in cooperation with Rotary Club Stiftland at a cost of 5 million birr, can treat ten thousand patients a year. Debre Markos was chosen for this project because the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) has the worst eye problem in Ethiopia.

About 60 thousand out of 20 million people in ANRS are currently blind. And about 300 thousand others have low vision and are at risk of blindness.

Cataract, trachoma and childhood blindness (resulting from lack of vitamin A during infancy) account for 75 percent of the causes of blindness in Ethiopia.

Cataract is a clouding of the eye which makes it dark so that a person can not see. It is usually a progressive condition for older people in developed countries. In Europe, almost everyone who is between 70 and 80 will have a cataract operation. However, in developing countries like Ethiopia it attacks people much younger. Some children are born with cataract and most adults develop it between the ages of 30 and 40. It is not clear yet why this is happening but the assumption is that it is related to poor nutritional condition and ultra-violet rays.

There is a higher incidence of cataract among younger people in Africa than anywhere else in the world. More than half of the 1.2 million blind people in Ethiopia have cataract. That means there are about 600 thousand people who could be treated and be able to see after a simple 20-minute surgery.

Trachoma, still a big problem in Ethiopia, is the second biggest cause of blindness. Trachoma is an infection of the eye coming from a fly that carries bacteria which cause inflammation. The eye-lid turns inside and starts to scratch the eye over many years until the eye is so scratched that it can not see. It can take five to ten years before it is completely scratched. An infected person can be treated easily by antibiotic drugs which stop the infection immediately. Even when the eye lid has started to turn, a simple cut by an operator will turn the eye-lid back up again to stop it from scratching.

Side by side with the curative services there has to be preventive and educational services as well, said Mr Martin Georgi, director of CBM. "There has to be education about the causes of blindness and there has to be enough clean water because people need to wash their face to prevent trachoma."

One of CBM's main field of engagement in Ethiopia is "Vision 2020: The Right to Slight," a global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness by the year 2020. To accomplish this, CBM involves, within the framework of the national committee for the prevention of blindness in infrastructure and human resources development and disease control within eye medical care. CBM is also lobbying at a policy level to ensure that blindness is given priority in the health policies of developing countries as well as being included as an important component of poverty alleviation in the development agenda of donor countries.

Secondary eye-units, like the one inaugurated last Saturday in Debre Markos, are being established in Chiro, West Hararge zone, of Oromia, and Woldiya, in Amhara Region. "We are painfully aware that much still needs to be done to allow Ethiopia to actually reach the levels recommended by the World Health Organization," said Mr Georgi.

[Ms. Kathy]

Born blind, UCC pastor has knack for seeing into souls
Source Link: www.indeonline.com/index.php?ID=14172&r=0&Category=3


PHOTO BY KEVIN WHITLOCK/THE INDEPENDENT
Rev. Barry Stirbens stands behind the pulpit at Grace United Church of Christ, where he has been pastor since September.



By STEPHEN HUBA
[e-mail]

Rev. Barry Stirbens preaches with his hands.

No, he doesn’t gesticulate wildly to make a point – he needs his hands to preach.

Blind from birth, Stirbens uses his hands to read the Bible in Braille or refer to sermon notes from the pulpit. Those hands have served him well in 33 years of ministry, whether typing in a sermon or shaking a hand or comforting someone in a time of grief.

Now they’re helping him serve the people of Grace United Church of Christ in Massillon.

“I still don’t know every nook and cranny in this building, but I’m learning,” Stirbens said, walking down the aisle past the wooden pews.

Stirbens, 59, of Jackson Township, began his pastorate here in September, during which time the people have come to love him and his ministry.

“He sees more than the average person,” said longtime member Stan Crofut, 70, of Massillon. “He’s inspiring.”

Crofut feels a special connection with Stirbens because he rebuilt the pulpit so that it would better hold the pastor’s large, floppy Braille Bible. His first Sunday at Grace UCC, Stirbens could barely hold the Bible and read from it at the same time.

As Stirbens readily admits, “It hasn’t always been an easy road. It’s been a lot of hard work.”

A native of Youngstown, Stirbens and his twin brother were born six weeks premature. His blindness resulted from medical complications after the birth, he said.

Stirbens’ calling to the ministry came early in life. By age 14, he felt “conscious of the fact that there was a God,” and by 17, he felt “very definitely” called by God, he said.

Once, in college, some well-meaning people laid hands on him and prayed for God to heal him of his blindness, but nothing happened. That didn’t shake Stirbens’ nascent faith any.

“I do believe in healing,” he said. “I believe that God heals us in the ways which are most profitable for him.”

Stirbens went on to seminary, got married and was assigned to his first pastorate, in Talmage, Neb. He and his wife, Kathy, have a daughter, Elizabeth, who is now a freshman at Kent State University.

After Nebraska, Stirbens spent 10 years serving three small UCC congregations in Holmes County. His arrival in Massillon last fall came after 20 years at a church in Alliance.

Church council President Bev Denholm was on the committee that extended the call to Stirbens and eventually hired him. “I was just very impressed,” she said. “I was in awe.”

Denholm, 62, of Massillon, said Stirbens was selected for “his sincerity, his honesty and his feeling for the position.” She remembers talking to him on the phone and then meeting him for the first time.

“He arrived at the church before I did that night, and somebody had already let him in. He heard my voice, and he said, ‘Well, Beverly’s here.’ He recognized me, and I was so impressed. Then he rattled off my phone number,” she said.

At first, Stirbens’ blindness was a distraction to some, Denholm said. But now, most parishioners are used to it.

“I forget he’s blind. Most people do, too,” she said. “I once told him, ‘Barry, we forgot you were blind,’ and he said, ‘That’s the nicest thing you could say to me.’”

Crofut thinks Stirbens’ disability still bothers some people in the church but that the majority are supportive. “He’s overcome a very severe handicap, and he’s done it quite proudly,” he said.

Stirbens uses public transportation to get to and from work, but he relies on congregants to take him on hospital calls and shut-in visits. He also defers to lay leaders for things like communion and the collection.

“I don’t handle the (communion) elements,” he said. “I don’t have the best stability in the world, and that grape juice stains.”

Because of his dependence on others, Stirbens sees his blindness as a blessing in disguise. It prompts others in the church to step up to the plate and help out, he said.

“I believe the blindness helps to contribute to a ministry where a lot of people get involved,” he said. “I can’t tell you the number of times people have told me, ‘I never knew Mrs. Jones, or some other shut-in, before.’ It turns into a whole additional ministry for them.”

In other ways, especially computer technology, Stirbens is mostly self-sufficient.

He uses a machine called a Braille ’n’ Speak to type notes and have them either printed or read to him later. He also uses adaptive screen reading technology – the software is Job Access With Speech (JAWS) for Windows – to read the computer, prepare sermons and develop the order of weekly worship services.

Sometimes, people ask him if he is angry at God about his disability. Stirbens always has a ready answer.

“I’m not angry at God. I think that God has been able to use me in the capacity that I am in a positive way,” he said. “God can take any disability and use it for his glory.”




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This page was created February 24, 2007
Copyright ©2007 The Independent
Have a question and/or comment about this site?
E-mail the webmaster at: [e-mail]



PHOTO BY KEVIN WHITLOCK/THE INDEPENDENT
Rev. Barry Stirbens stands behind the pulpit at Grace United Church of Christ, where he has been pastor since September.



By STEPHEN HUBA
[e-mail]

Rev. Barry Stirbens preaches with his hands.

No, he doesn’t gesticulate wildly to make a point – he needs his hands to preach.

Blind from birth, Stirbens uses his hands to read the Bible in Braille or refer to sermon notes from the pulpit. Those hands have served him well in 33 years of ministry, whether typing in a sermon or shaking a hand or comforting someone in a time of grief.

Now they’re helping him serve the people of Grace United Church of Christ in Massillon.

“I still don’t know every nook and cranny in this building, but I’m learning,” Stirbens said, walking down the aisle past the wooden pews.

Stirbens, 59, of Jackson Township, began his pastorate here in September, during which time the people have come to love him and his ministry.

“He sees more than the average person,” said longtime member Stan Crofut, 70, of Massillon. “He’s inspiring.”

Crofut feels a special connection with Stirbens because he rebuilt the pulpit so that it would better hold the pastor’s large, floppy Braille Bible. His first Sunday at Grace UCC, Stirbens could barely hold the Bible and read from it at the same time.

As Stirbens readily admits, “It hasn’t always been an easy road. It’s been a lot of hard work.”

A native of Youngstown, Stirbens and his twin brother were born six weeks premature. His blindness resulted from medical complications after the birth, he said.

Stirbens’ calling to the ministry came early in life. By age 14, he felt “conscious of the fact that there was a God,” and by 17, he felt “very definitely” called by God, he said.

Once, in college, some well-meaning people laid hands on him and prayed for God to heal him of his blindness, but nothing happened. That didn’t shake Stirbens’ nascent faith any.

“I do believe in healing,” he said. “I believe that God heals us in the ways which are most profitable for him.”

Stirbens went on to seminary, got married and was assigned to his first pastorate, in Talmage, Neb. He and his wife, Kathy, have a daughter, Elizabeth, who is now a freshman at Kent State University.

After Nebraska, Stirbens spent 10 years serving three small UCC congregations in Holmes County. His arrival in Massillon last fall came after 20 years at a church in Alliance.

Church council President Bev Denholm was on the committee that extended the call to Stirbens and eventually hired him. “I was just very impressed,” she said. “I was in awe.”

Denholm, 62, of Massillon, said Stirbens was selected for “his sincerity, his honesty and his feeling for the position.” She remembers talking to him on the phone and then meeting him for the first time.

“He arrived at the church before I did that night, and somebody had already let him in. He heard my voice, and he said, ‘Well, Beverly’s here.’ He recognized me, and I was so impressed. Then he rattled off my phone number,” she said.

At first, Stirbens’ blindness was a distraction to some, Denholm said. But now, most parishioners are used to it.

“I forget he’s blind. Most people do, too,” she said. “I once told him, ‘Barry, we forgot you were blind,’ and he said, ‘That’s the nicest thing you could say to me.’”

Crofut thinks Stirbens’ disability still bothers some people in the church but that the majority are supportive. “He’s overcome a very severe handicap, and he’s done it quite proudly,” he said.

Stirbens uses public transportation to get to and from work, but he relies on congregants to take him on hospital calls and shut-in visits. He also defers to lay leaders for things like communion and the collection.

“I don’t handle the (communion) elements,” he said. “I don’t have the best stability in the world, and that grape juice stains.”

Because of his dependence on others, Stirbens sees his blindness as a blessing in disguise. It prompts others in the church to step up to the plate and help out, he said.

“I believe the blindness helps to contribute to a ministry where a lot of people get involved,” he said. “I can’t tell you the number of times people have told me, ‘I never knew Mrs. Jones, or some other shut-in, before.’ It turns into a whole additional ministry for them.”

In other ways, especially computer technology, Stirbens is mostly self-sufficient.

He uses a machine called a Braille ’n’ Speak to type notes and have them either printed or read to him later. He also uses adaptive screen reading technology – the software is Job Access With Speech (JAWS) for Windows – to read the computer, prepare sermons and develop the order of weekly worship services.

Sometimes, people ask him if he is angry at God about his disability. Stirbens always has a ready answer.

“I’m not angry at God. I think that God has been able to use me in the capacity that I am in a positive way,” he said. “God can take any disability and use it for his glory.”




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This page was created February 24, 2007
Copyright ©2007 The Independent
Have a question and/or comment about this site?
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