EDMONTON — In the past month, U of A professor Dr. Karim Damji has performed surgery on about 15 children born with glaucoma in Kenya and Ethiopia and trained doctors in the East African countries to treat the blinding disease.
Damji has used his ophthalmology training to volunteer around the world for about 15 years now, in places such as Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and India. For the past four years, the 47-year-old father of two has volunteered around East Africa, in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda.
“It’s one of the greatest things about being an eye surgeon — the feeling you’ve really helped somebody to either prevent blindness or restore sight,” said Damji Saturday in an interview from India, where he is visiting family and connecting with eye institutions there. “It’s a great high, a lift for me to be able to travel and meet people and see them flourish in their own environment.” […]
That is done through partnerships the U of A has with institutions overseas, such as the University of Nairobi, the Aga Khan University in Kenya and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, he said.
Ismailimail 