Hi all,



Please read below details about urgent health and education needs at

Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. We hope that many of you will be

interested in volunteering your expertise.



I will start with part of an e-mail received by Julie Harris, a current

Unite For Sight volunteer at Buduburam Refugee Camp:



"For those of you who saw Hotel Rwanda, do you remember the scene where

the journalist is talking to Don Cheadle, saying that he thinks people

will watch the tragic events in Rwanda on their televisions, and way how

awful it is, and then go back to eacing their dinner? Help is needed

here, desperately - if you know how to inspire action, PLEASE help. If

you work for a publicity organization, help me to get the stories here

out....Don't assume that if it were major enough, you'd have heard of

it. Please help me to tell people about it. If you work for any

organizations that want to donate people or supplies, or you want to

donate yourself for a week or more, PLEASE help. The needs here vastly

exceed the capability of the volunteers present. I hope I can convey in

this e-mail how dire these circumstances truly are."



As background, I am writing on behalf of Unite For Sight, a 501(c)3

nonprofit organization that empowers communities worldwide to improve

eye health and eliminiate preventable blindness. Since January 1st, our

volunteer teams have been providing eye care at Buduburam Refugee Camp

in Ghana. Our teams are incredibly impressed by the people at the

refugee camp, especially their local NGO called SHIFSD (Self-Help

Initiatives for Sustainable Development). SHIFSD is an inspiring story,

borne out of the removal of the UN from the camp in 2000, which forced

the refugees to fend for themselves. The goal of SHIFSD is to implement

programs and make changes that will better lives as well as prepare

people for the eventual return to Liberia.



In addition to the eye care being provided by Unite For Sight, Buduburam

Refugee Camp also has many other urgent health and education needs, and

we are hoping that many of you may be interested in volunteering your

expertise and time, whether at Buduburam or from your own home.  You may

also have friends or family who may be interested in volunteering.



The urgent health and education needs include:



1) HIV/AIDS education and a sustainable source of condoms

2) Psychologists to assist with war-induced and camp-induced

psychological trauma

3) Education: sponsorship of children to receive an education. There are

many schools at Buduburam, all refugee-run, but many people cannot

afford school (about $100/student/year). Given the choice between food

and sending kids to school, some families do choose school. However,

their child then goes to school hungry, is fatigued and can't learn, so

the $100/year is wasted.

4) Volunteer teachers for 1 month or more (preferably 1 year or more) to

educate the children at Buduburam

4) Books for a library that we are hoping to create

5) Volunteers for a literacy program to teach the mothers how to read so

that they can help teach their children. Teaching the women is key to

teaching the rest of the population.

6) Computer donations, volunteers to teach IT

7) Volunteers to help refugees create small businesses

8) Volunteers to teach agriculture skills

9) If you're thinking of throwing away that old computer or accessories,

please ship it to Buduburam

10) Volunteers to provide eye care as Unite For Sight volunteers

11) Do you have connections to publicity organizations that can alert

people to the urgent needs at Buduburam Refugee Camp?



Unite For Sight's volunteer Julie Harris is working on eye health, HIV

education, teacher education (biology, basic math, chemistry, eye health

education), microenterprise, polio vaccination campaign, measles

vaccination campaign, literacy, clinical work, you name it. However,

Julie needs help from others who can assist with all of these needs

since there are only 24 hours in a day! The people at Buduburam Refugee

Camp are incredibly grateful for any support and volunteers. Our

Volunteer Teams can't stop raving about the incredible people, and 2 of

our volunteers who just returned back to North America are already

booking flights to return to Buduburam within 5 weeks! I hope that many

of you will be interested in helping, too.



Please forward this e-mail around. You never know who knows someone who

can help.



I'll end with a story written by Julie about Ali, a man she has befriended:



Ali, the first patient, is a very shy, quiet man with a square

face. He always looks at his feet when he speaks, and he speaks so

quietly that it's difficult to hear him.  He shuffles his feet in the

dust when he walks, probably because he cannot see well.  He has

nystagmus, a condition that makes his eyes jump around when he tries

to focus, but when he is looking at nothing in particular, they stay

in place.  Unrelated to the nystagmus, he has very low visual acuity –

he can count fingers that I hold up at 1 meter away, maximum.  He's

married and has 4 kids of his own, plus his brothers' 3 children.  I

went to interview Ali today, because his story touched me (and to be

honest, I'm in the first phase here.  I'm still wide-eyed, and I know

it.  But I can't ignore stories like this, and I hope you can't

either).



Ali was born in 1965 in Monrovia, Liberia.  In Liberia, very poor

families will often send their children to be sponsored by a wealthy

family, and the child will live with and work for that family in

exchange for school tuition.  The child takes on the name of the

sponsor, which is how Ali acquired his name (I don't know his old

name).  Many people in the camp were subject to this same arrangement.

Ali finished school and became a math teacher in Liberia, and taught

until January of 1990, when fighting in Liberia forced he and his wife

Elizabeth and their baby daughter Grace to flee.  The rest of Ali's

family stayed behind.



Liberia is divided into 16 tribes that are often at odds.  When the

war started, Ali's father, a popular local businessman, was removed

from his house early one morning in June 1990, arrested, and jailed on

the premise that he was selling rice to rebels; he was actually being

targeted for his tribal affiliation and ethnicity.  Local supporters

came to the jail to make appeals on his behalf; to discourage such

appeals, they took his father out of the jail and shot him in front of

everyone.



Ali fled Liberia in January of 1990, prior to his father's death.  His

brother John, who now also lives at Buduburam with another brother and

one sister - 3 other brothers and 1 sister were also killed in the

Liberian war - told me the story of his father and that he watched his

father die.  Ali fled to the Ivory Coast, as did most of the refugees

that are now here.  In the Ivory Coast, he began teaching math,

unaware of what had happened to his family.  Eventually, someone

brought his brothers' children to him (3) and he had 3 more of his

own.  He assumed the position of Director of the Frontline Education

Project in the Ivory Coast, and worked there until 2002.  On September

20th, 2002, the Ivory Coast erupted in war, the president was

overthrown (doublecheck this - I had trouble understanding him at this

point).  Liberian refugeees, who had inundated the Ivory Coast, were

targeted for persecution by rebel forces as they attempted to aid the

current government.  THe women and girls were raped and the men were

killed.  Ali was beaten and tortured until his eyes filled with blood.



In late 2002, Ali came to Buduburam, and reunited with 2 brothers and

one sister, where he found out about his father and siblings being

killed in the war.  I went to inteview Ali today at his house and

found that he had moved.  His son, who was sewing outside the house,

took me to his brother's house, where Ali is now living.  There are 13

people - Ali, Elizabeth, their 7 children, and his brother, his

brother's wife, and 2 children - living in a room that is

approximately 8 x 10.  I asked them to show me how they sleep, and

they closed the door and showed me.  I have a picture of a bunch of

refugees curled up on the floor.  I swear to you that it is tragic.

Ali is an educated, intelligent man who lived a regular, normal life

as a math teacher prior to coming to Buduburam.



Ali came to our eye clinic on Wednesday, and on Friday I took Ali and

his wife to Tema to see if they could operate and help him – he was

suspect for bilateral cataract.  Long story short, he has retinitis

pigmentosa – his retina is, through the ophthalmoscope, speckled with

yellows and blacks and reds (my best descriptive medical terminology).

It's an untreatable genetic condition, and his vision will not

improve.  Like everyone, Ali wanted surgery, but there is no treatment

for his condition at all – not here, and not in the US.  Dr. Addy, the

clinic doctor, explained the situation to me, and I explained it to

Ali.  He was devastated.  He asked if he could talk to me privately.

We went outside.  Still looking down, he quietly explained his family

situation to me (which inspired me to return to him and find out

more), and he whispered how could he study if he won't be able to see?

I can't remember ever feeling so helpless.  I wanted to cry for him.



I do have a few other bilaterally blind patients, but some have family

who can send them money and help.  Ali does not.  We are trying to set

up a microenterprise program with him and his wife, and are also

trying to get him a magnifying glass and strong magnifier glasses so

that he can read – they cost about $10, a relative fortune here, and

anyway are almost impossible to get a hold of here.  I think the next

volunteer, Farhad, is bringing them next week when he comes.  Jennifer

suggested that we set up a microenterprise system for him, and today I

asked him what sort of work he thought would be appropriate.  He can't

sew, he can't teach - there are few things a blind man can do here.

He can, however, sell water.  What is needed, in rough terms, are a

Deep Freeze (about $150-350 US, depending on the size), current (about

40$ US to register, and then about $11 per month to have 24-hour

service), and input to buy water (Not very much money).  I asked his

wife about sewing, but she does not know how and it would take some

time to learn.  A sewing machine here runs about $100, or you can rent

for about $11 per month.  Anyway, it's a story I wanted to share, and

contributing to this particular microenterprise (or a general

microenterprise fund) can easily be done, and if you're interested,

you can email me to find out how to do it.





Sincerely,

Jennifer Staple

Founder, President & CEO

Unite For Sight

www.uniteforsight.org



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