The Gambia – Swansea Vision 2020 Eye Link

The Gambia-Swansea Vision 2020 Link Newsletter

Issue 3 – June 2009

Hello and welcome to the third Gambia-Swansea Link newsletter.  This issue is packed with all of the latest news and developments about the link.  Read on to find out more …

Recent Visit to The Gambia

A team of 5 from Singleton Hospital visited The Gambia on March 20 for one week. Their visit was focused on developing a dedicated ophthalmic paediatric service in the Sheikh Zayed Regional Eye Care Centre.

During this time, huge progress was made. New vision testing equipment was given so that babies and infants could now have their vision and eye movements assessed. Tutorials and practical teaching sessions were given to all medical staff. A dedicated room was allocated to become a children’s play area. New surgical and refraction techniques were introduced.

Glittering and Glamorous EyeBall

The Gambia-Swansea Vision 2020 Link would like to thank everyone who attended the first “Glittering and Glamorous EyeBall” which was held on Saturday 25th April at The Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea.

The event was a huge success and £2500 was raised for the link. We aim to use this money to purchase essential equipment for The Sheikh Zayed Regional Eye Care Centre.

Golf Tournament

Blustery winds and overcast conditions did not deter the 19 teams who competed for The Gambia Swansea Vision 2020 Eye Link Golf Tournament at Pennard Golf Club on Friday 22nd May. Pennard with its links course and fantastic views over Oxwich Bay and the Bristol Channel proved a very testing but enjoyable challenge. A massive £1700 was raised towards the link. A big thank you to all that attended!

Funding

The Gambia-Swansea link is delighted to have received support from both the Gower and Llwchr AND Rotary Club of Banjul. It is great to see a friendship being formed between the two and we hope a partnership will develop.

The link has also received a generous donation from Reynoldson Play Group. It is our intention to use this money to fund some much needed toys in the newly created play area in the Eye Care Centre.

Future Visits

A team from The Gambia will be visiting Singleton hospital for one week in the summer. More training, education and skills transfer is planned to help develop the paediatric service further.

We also plan to send a team over to Banjul in November where we will start to focus on glaucoma.

Future Events

We hope to hold a good old fashioned twmpath (welsh barn dance) in the winter! Please visit: http://gambia-swansea-eye-link.org to find out more!