Wanganui helping Cambodians to see

PATIENT PATIENTS: Crowds waiting to be seen at the Rose Sight Centre in Phnom Penh.06082015WCSUPCAM4

The generosity of the Wanganui community continues to save the eyesight of thousands of Cambodians.

Donations of specialist eye equipment from Wanganui, through the Rose Charities to an eye clinic in Phnom Penh, was enabling doctors in the clinic to do "incredible" work, said retired Wanganui optician Mike Webber.

"It's done huge service over there, is still going strong and has given the local surgeons a massive kick-start," Mr Webber said.

He said the sheer number of people the clinic had been treating was "incredible".

"On a busy day they've got about 200 people coming through and, on a quiet day, about 70."

He has just returned home after another visit to Hang Vra's surgery in Phnom Penh, one of only 12 such facilities in a country with a population of 15 million.

The Rose Charities, of which Mr Webber is a trustee, has assisted Dr Vra and his wife, Natalia Vra, to rebuild the centre and expand its facilities. Now named the Rose Sight Centre, the clinic sees about 10,000 patients with 3500 surgeries held each year.

The equipment sent over from Wanganui includes two operating microscopes, and a scanner donated by former Wanganui eye surgeon Geoff Duff.

"Over the years, these donations have given the clinic a huge ability to move forward with the treatment they can provide," Mr Webber said.

He first visited Cambodia in 2005 and has been back usually twice a year but certainly once a year ever since.

"I usually take an eye surgeon with me and, this time, I took two surgeons because the team over there wanted upskilling in retinal surgery. This operation has no margin for error so it's the most challenging of eye surgeries.

"What it means now is that it has placed this clinic probably right at the top of eye clinics in Cambodia," he said.

"Cataract surgery is run-of-the-mill stuff nowadays but this surgery is the more challenging stuff."

Mr Webber said the number of patients the clinic was seeing was astounding and it operated seven days a week to keep up with demand.

"Their workload is unbelievable. They've had to stop doing the out-reach clinics to the villages because they've got so much work on their plate at the clinic. But they will start again later."

He said the intent of supporting the clinics in the first place was teaching Cambodians to help themselves.

"They're doing stuff there now that they never were able to do before and it's stopping people going blind. And it all comes back to the generosity of people in Wanganui especially who have donated equipment and money to fund it," he said.

"We can be pleased with what has been achieved by Rose Charities NZ in Cambodia. It will leave a lasting legacy of better eye care for those poor people."