Turkish doctors volunteer in Niger

By Alaattin Dogru

DAKAR

A group of Turkish doctors, who are on a voluntary mission in Niger, helped a woman get her eyesight.

Khedija Shefahatu, a 25-year-old woman, visited the doctors to get her child examined, not knowing that this could be her chance.

After a successful surgery by the Turkish doctors, Khedija experienced the joy of seeing her child, husband and everything for the first time in her life.

The association of Turkish volunteer doctors, in coordination with Islamic Development Bank (IDB), launched a project called fighting blindness in Africa under the banner of "One Million Cataract Surgery".

Mihriban Alizade, an ophthalmologist from the Istanbul Haydarpasa Referral and Research Hospital, told Anadolu Agency that Shefahatu had brought her child for examination.

"I realized there was a strange thing about a blindness of the woman [...] and when I examined her I figured out that she had a white cataract in her eyes," she said.

After getting her eyesight back, Shefahatu expressed her gratitude to the doctors.

Over 600 cataract surgeries performed

"As a team, we have successfully performed cataract surgeries on more than 600 patients. Men, women, elderly, children and youth," Alizade said.

Dr. Turgut Ozcan, member of the association and Istanbul's Tuzla municipality deputy head, said they started their mission in Niger on July 21, and the program will end on August 7.

He said that so far 635 cataract operations have been carried out in the towns of Tessaoua and Aguie.

Besides giving medical aid, the team distributed some 400 goats, especially to widows and orphans in the villages, as part of a social project carried out by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the Ministry of Health.

Hundreds of members of the Turkish volunteer doctors association under the leadership of Dr. Ibrahim Ceylan have been serving people in need in numerous geographical areas with a motto of "let's volunteer" starting from 2005.