Community Report | Clearly Goes to Kenya: An Update with Abel Mwema

Two years ago we introduced you to Abel Mwema, a compassionate doctor and community member that we met through our partnership with Free the Children in South Narok, Kenya. At that time, Abel had just recently completed additional training in ophthalmology, and was responsible for screening, assessing, diagnosing, treating and prescribing patients with eyeglasses. This additional care and service was bridging the gap for those patients who might otherwise not have access to, or might have to travel long distances for this type of care.  

We had the opportunity to catch up with Abel two years later to find out how he has continued to help people see more clearly and to hear his future plans for vision health access in his community. For this #ThrowBackThursday our CFO Craig Lennox shares his experience catching up with Abel, now a few years into his optical specialization!  

I had the pleasure of spending an hour with Abel after a great tour of Kishon Health Clinic. Abel has been working with Free the Children for approximately 4 years. He initially worked at the Baraka Health Clinic in the Narok South District of Kenya, and then transferred to Kishon in 2013. Abel finished medical school in 2009 and is now in charge of Kishon Health Clinic which has 2 clinic officers, 2 nurses and 1 lab technician.

When Abel first joined the team at Kishon, he noticed many patients coming in with eye issues. At the time, Kishon lacked the optometry expertise, so he referred patients to other hospitals which were government run. Narok District Hospital is 45 km’s away and Tenwek Mission Hospital is 70 km’s away. Traveling to these hospitals was not easy for local residents. Abel found that many patients would ultimately come back to Kishon without having issues treated because it was not easy for them to travel to these hospitals, and for the ones that did, these hospitals also seemed to lack knowledge and supplies. In 2013 Abel pursued optometry and completed a professional course, which was supported by Clearly & Change the View. This allowed Abel and Kishon to diagnose and do proper referrals, including diagnosing cataracts. During our team’s visit to the health clinic, a total of 53 cataract cases were diagnosed.

Today, Kishon is completing comprehensive eye exams, and dispensing glasses and eye drops. Abel noted that Kishon has become known as the “Eye Hospital” in the area due to clinic services and building awareness. While Kishon and Abel have been successful at building awareness in the area, he is also committed to providing access to those in remote areas. Abel developed an outreach program through Kishon and travels to remote areas on Fridays. The model was created based on the realization that many patients were traveling long distances to come to Kishon and transportation and cost was often a barrier to come back for proper follow up appointments. During these remote visits, Abel typically sees 40-50 patients a day during visits and brings portable optical equipment, eye drops and glasses (plano sun, Rx glasses and readers) provided by Clearly.

I was really impressed with Abel’s knowledge and commitment to Kishon and Free The Children. We spoke briefly about his future and he was excited to be starting a management program in Nairobi in January (2016), and then planned to return to Kishon with added experience and ideas for the health clinic. Abel also mentioned that he has considered pursuing a 3-year Ophthalmology Program so he could expand Kishon’s scope of practice to do cataract surgeries and other procedures in-house (rather than relying on remote Ophthalmologists to travel to Kishon from Nairobi).

We’d like to thank Abel, Free the Children and the amazing staff at Baraka and Kishon Health Clinics for opening their doors and hearts to the Clearly Team. We can’t wait for the next update, and to hear about the great progress in vision health and correction that comes from Abel’s vision and leadership.