172
Ships of Mercy
was a comfortable place for patients to gain stamina prior to surgery and for patients to stay while undergoing follow-up treatment after surgery. As a result, the beds in the onboard hospital ward were more quickly available—which translated into more surgeries performed and more people helped. While the Benin Field Service eclipsed all previous records in the number of people served, we were also determined to leave footprints of mercy in Benin in order to meet future needs long after the Africa Mercy left the country. Our efforts to build infrastructure focused on training, community development projects, and construction projects. The Africa Mercy provides an effective platform for offering training to African health care providers. Alcon, a division of Novartis, provided a $50,000 grant for capacity building and opportunity to offer AlconMercy Ships Fellowships for qualified surgeons. Both Togolese and Beninese ophthalmologists participated. They learned a sutureless cataract surgery technique—a method developed specifically for the very dense cataracts created by the intense African sun and the lack of preventative eye care. Dr. Glenn Strauss explained, “The Beninese surgeons have been about 15 or 20 years behind what’s happening in the rest of the world. I was able to introduce a procedure that is appropriate for the technology that they have, that is within the scope of what they can accomplish here. They were thrilled! In fact, one of the surgeons commented to me, ‘This is going to change eye surgery in Benin for years to come!’” One of the five ophthalmic surgeons from Benin who received training was Dr. Ogbe Barikissou, a local surgeon from Porto-Novo. She is the Director of the National Eye Care Program for Benin. When she received an invitation to meet with Mercy Ships, she was skeptical. She had previously sat through many meetings with well-intended relief workers. She thought, “Okay, here goes . . . another NGO needing to be babysat and watched over.” She wondered how much of her time they would require. But, when Dr. Ogbe met with Dr. Glenn, she was not only surprised—she was excited and invigorated by the training we were offering! She and two of her team members participated in the training. Previously, at the Porto-Novo Hospital, they had performed less than 100 cataract removals in an entire year. At the end of their training with Mercy Ships, they were performing 58 surgeries per week, increasing their annual capacity by over 500%! Dr. Ogbe is now doing cataract surgery on her