Maradi eyes tech upgrades

Dr. Ibrahim Baare conducts a consultation with a patient at his eye clinic in Maradi in May 2023. (Photo by Dr. Brent Van Andel)

“When children go blind, they are condemned to a life of begging.”

Luke Society director Dr. Ibrahim Baare from Maradi, Niger, explained this to me the first time I met him. Two years ago, he gave up a successful ophthalmology practice at a government hospital because he wanted more time to focus on holistic care. Many of the patients he ended up seeing at the hospital had conditions that could have been addressed sooner with better comprehensive and preventive care. For example, if common conditions like cataracts and glaucoma are diagnosed and treated early, they will not progress to complete blindness.

Baare grew up in a Muslim family and attended a Koranic school. He became a Christian as a teenager when he heard the Gospel from local missionaries. His vision for holistic health care began a few years after this while doing medical work in an isolated rural village. It was during this time that he began to see the importance of spiritual care as well as physical care.

When Baare opened his own practice in a small clinic he had only a few basic ophthalmologic instruments. He purchased these on his own. However, he still lacks some of the more advanced tools that will enable him to improve diagnosis and treatment. A bimodal ocular ultrasound is one of these instruments. This type of ultrasound would help him to evaluate both the front and rear chambers of the eye and treat conditions like cataracts and retinal detachment more effectively. Our goal is to raise $20,000 for this project.

One evening during my last visit to Maradi, we visited some of Baare’s patients at their homes. Most of these individuals were Muslims. However, they still wanted us to pray with them. It was a dark night. Our meetings were in dimly lit courtyards and small rooms. The prayers lifted in darkness were a reminder to me that blindness is spiritual as well as physical. Baare is offering treatment for both. Will you join him in helping the people in Maradi see?

The Luke Society accepts a variety of forms of donation. If you would like to give online, you can do so by clicking here: Maradi ocular ultrasound project.