IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, which has so far cured the sight of 27,414 cataract patients in Sudan, will help another 12,000 Sudanese patients fight blindness in cooperation with TİKA. According to a contract agreed on in a meeting that brought together Turkish ambassador to Sudan Erdoğan Kök and his wife Fermin Kök, and Fatma Emin Abdullah, chairman of El-Birr and Tavasul Association and wife of Sudanese Prime Minister Ali Osman Muhammad Taha, 12,000 cataract patients will be offered surgery in five Sudanese cities.
IHH had planned as part of the Sudan Cataract Project to perform 40,000 surgeries in Sudan, one of the countries with the highest number of cataract patients. IHH, TİKA and El-Birr and Tavasul Association agreed to perform another 12,000 surgeries in addition to 27,414 surgeries completed so far.
The surgeries will be performed in Sudan’s White Nile, Kurdufan, Kassala, Khartoum and al-Janine regions with three health camps every month. Services will be supported with physicians and nurses from Turkey and completed in a year.
Speaking during the contract signing ceremony Turkish ambassador Kök said: “Turkey is the country with the highest number of relief projects in Africa. I believe this has something to do with historical closeness with the region.” Fatma Emin Abdullah stressed the significance of such projects in forming bridges between the two nations and thanked the people of Turkey over their assistance.
Project coordinator Özyürek recalled the foundation had been supporting the Sudanese people in the fight against cataract since 2006 and had realized cataract surgeries in 22 different African countries. TİKA coordinator to Sudan Osman Vatansever said the agency had accomplished a number of projects in the country and hoped the cataract project would help thousands of people reintegrate to social life.
