Welcome to
our temporary eye clinic

In rural areas of the countries in which Sightsavers works, people often have to travel long distances to reach health care facilities. These journeys can be challenging, especially during the rainy season when flooding is common.

To make sure people can still be treated, Sightsavers often sets up temporary eye clinics in remote regions, bringing treatment directly to the heart of the community.

In a remote town called Chunyu in Tanzania, for example, Sightsavers transformed a village hall into a temporary eye hospital (also known as a surgery camp), enabling locals to easily get checked for symptoms of trachoma, an infectious eye disease.

Surgery is crucial for people with the advanced stage of trachoma, which can lead to permanent eye damage. As long as equipment is sterile and the patient is wearing a surgical face covering, it doesn’t need to take place in an operating theatre.

Advanced trachoma surgeon Dr Lukanga never turns a patient away from Chunyu clinic. He says: “The amazing thing about surgery for advanced trachoma is that it doesn’t need to be carried out in a hospital. We can set up temporary surgery camps, just like this one, to reach patients like Mayasa who live many miles from their local hospital.”

Use the clickable image below to explore the Chunyu operating room, or browse the gallery to see Dr Lukanga’s patient, Mayasa, receiving surgery at the clinic.