Africa-Press – Namibia. DOCTOR Helena Ndume, the Chief of Ophthalmology at Windhoek Central Hospital who dedicated her career to fighting blindness and low-vision, will be presented with a 2022 Lions Humanitarian Award on 28 June.
She will join the list of other notable award recipients, which includes Mother Theresa, former USA president Jimmy Carter and Nobel Prize winner Dr Denis Mukwege.
“My biggest goal in life is to end preventable blindness and to build a team of committed young people that will continue to fight against it, so even when I am not here, they will carry on that mission,” Dr Ndume said.
Dr Ndume mainly treats cataracts, glaucoma, and allergic conjunctivitis. Treating blindness and low-vision in Namibia and throughout the developing world has been the focal point of Dr Ndume’s career.
She has performed more than 35 000 free eye surgeries in Namibia, Angola and around the world. It is this dedication that will be rewarded at the 104th Lions Club International Convention.
“We are truly honoured to present this award to Dr Ndume, whose work is changing lives and making a profound impact on the world,” Lions Clubs International President Douglas X. Alexander said.
The Lions Humanitarian Award, the association’s highest honour, is given to individuals or organisations for their commendable humanitarian efforts. The award comes with a Lions Clubs International Foundation grant for up to US$250 000 to a charitable organisation for continuing humanitarian activities.
When Dr Ndume was 15, she fled her hometown in Oshikoto and moved to Zambia and Angola, where she lived in the South West Africa Peoples Organisation’s (SWAPO) liberation camps. The organisation then sent her to The Gambia in West Africa, where she completed her secondary education.
She then enrolled and attended medical school in Germany through SWAPO’s support and in 1995, she started working with Surgical Eye Expeditions (SEE) International to reverse preventable blindness in Namibia.
Dr Ndume is still partnered with SEE International, whose network of volunteers consists of more than 650 ophthalmologists and medical professionals from 80 different countries.
“For so many people, living with preventable blindness makes all the difference in whether or not they survive or starve,” Dr Ndume said.
For More News And Analysis About Namibia Follow Africa-Press
