May 1999
Light for Afghanistan
The National Organization for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation (NOOR) provides the most extensive range of eye care services in Afghanistan. NOOR means Light in Dari.
Since 1966, NOOR has developed medical and surgical training, eyeglass production, technician training, pharmaceutical production, vitamin A deficiency screening, urban ophthalmic hospital management, rural mobile ophthalmic health teams and prevention of blindness education.
NOOR’s objective is to make comprehensive eye care available to all the people of Afghanistan, which means overcoming logistical problems such as reaching people who live in regions almost inaccessible, a population that is greatly impoverished, and political upheaval.
The number of outpatients per year is 100,000. Each year, 6,500 sight saving operations are performed, almost 8,000 pairs of glasses are dispensed, and over 250,000 bottles of eye drops are produced and distributed.
What NOOR is doing in eye care throughout the country has led to improvements in many other aspects of medical care. It will also have a significant impact on progress in education and vocational development.
An Eyewitness Account
David Brooks, who is serving with Pactec in Afghanistan, sent this report.
I accompanied Tom Little, the manager of the NOOR Eye Hospital, to an eye camp in Mehtarlam. They were treating up to 400 patients a day. Tom let me be in the surgery room while they were operating. All the medical people are locals who have been trained by NOOR. It was an extremely impressive project.
After a few days Tom and I left for a valley in Nuristan. The road was so rough that it took us 6 hours to go 60 miles. When the road ended, we hiked in for a couple of hours. We were there to set up for an eye camp later this year. We spent two days living in a mud hut and eating very little (a dish of white rice was a typical meal) and then hiked back out.
Some of the areas they go to are extremely remote, and they have to hike in for a couple of days. Everything—food, medicine, and other supplies—has to be carried in. People come from miles to the clinic, sometimes carrying the sick on their backs for days.
It does not cost a lot of money to do these camps and they do an amazing amount of good. I cannot recommend this work enough.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)
