Bishop Ackon Eye Clinic

In Ghana, there are roughly 300 eye care professionals to serve 25 million citizens. Limited personnel would be only one of the challenges.

Other factors include a lack of funds for outreach, minimal public eye care education, insufficient screening and diagnostic equipment, and the continued use of uncertified herbal preparations to treat ocular disease. The result, not surprisingly, is a uniformly low level of care, which can be measured in sobering statistics. Ghana is ranked second in the world for prevalence of glaucoma, with 600,000 Ghanaians suffering from it. Experts say 30,000 are likely to become blind if the disease is left untreated.

After touring the Bishop Ackon clinic on a 2013 Communion Visit to Ghana, the Compass Rose Society formed a group of members to examine how to help fund repairs of the clinic’s roof and purchase up-to-date equipment.