Grant funds will be used1) To install solar panels at the IVV Zimba Eye Clinic to provide reliable, efficient power year round better to serve the patients.  Without a multifaceted power solution that includes solar panels, the eye clinic’s power supply is unreliable with an overreliance on diesel fuel that is expensive and time consuming to procure. 2)To upgrade medical equipment for the full time clinical staff at IVVto improve medical care for the patients of the IVV Zimba Eye Clinic. 3) Topurchase clinical reference materials for the IVV Rotary Libraryfor the IVV staff to help them stay current with newest methods to improve patient care. This clinical research space and subscriptions to the latest medical references available in the existing IVV RotaryLibrary will help improve care for the eye clinic patients. The container used to ship the medical equipment and the solar panels will be used in Zimba possibly as an additional structure to expand the IVV Rotary Library.

 

About IVV:IVV is an NGO founded 25 years ago to bring sight and eye care to the underserved of the world. In 2001, Rotarians built the eye clinic in Zimba, near Livingstone.  IVV staff now includes a full time local ophthalmologist, Dr. Brighton Samoyo, and local clinical staff including an ophthalmic nurse, Clever Nasil, to care for patients.  Four to five times each year, IVV volunteer medical professionals from the US and Canada organize medical missions (“eye camps”) to care for patients who otherwise would go without vision services.  Each year these volunteers evaluate and treat approximately 2000-3000 patients and perform 300-400 eye surgeries, the most common of which is cataract surgery. IVV also provides medical treatment of common eye diseases that can cause blindness, such as glaucoma, and eye trauma due to injuries and accidents.

 

Student members of Orinda Rotary's Interact Club at Miramonte High School traveled to Zambia this past summer to see the clinic, help patients and assist with the education efforts in the clinic's library.