Dear friends and supporters,
What 12 months it has been for the Andean Medical Mission!
Thanks to your encouragement and generosity, we’ve been able to continue our work to eliminate avoidable blindness in the Beni region of Bolivia — and the results have been inspiring.
We continue with our surgical campaigns and are nearing 2000 operations completed. Over the last 12 months we have undertaken 3 large trips to 6 villages helping hundreds of patients with their vision and operating on over 300 patients who were blind or at risk of blindness. The number of patients who attend the surgical trips constantly exceeds the time and surgical spaces we have available each trip as hundreds and hundreds attend our clinics hoping for a chance to see again through accessing the service we offer free of charge in northern Bolivia.
We select patients based on need helping those who are bilaterally blind first and fitting everyone else in if we have time and space with promises to return when we can. The teams start early and work late into the night with two operating beds running at the same time. Every year we try to be more efficient and work skillfully to help as many patients as possible improving systems and efficiencies as we find the best way forward.
In May this year we headed out to Santa Rosa de Yacuma in the Beni. Led by the very experienced Jeremy Joseph (now on his 4th trip with AMM) and with 2 consultant ophthalmologists from the UK, Kasia and Izabella and clinic assistance from Melanie and Hasneyth both Bolivian volunteers, we set up a surgical station. With good support from the hospital and surrounding villages, we managed to operate on 104 blind patients and list many patients for our glaucoma trip later this year. Patients came from as far away as San Borja to the south and Riberalta to the north. It was especially nice to see some of our previous Santa Rosa patients from 2017 and 2019 surgeries after so many years. They came for a checkup and to say hello and it was lovely to see them doing well and in good health with their eyes.
Many of this year’s patients were younger and those that were bilaterally blind benefit greatly from both eyes being operated. There were some lovely results including one young man who helped to prepare our food every day. He peeled and washed vegetables by feel and was delighted with his near perfect vision following surgery on both eyes.
Another patient that we were able to help this year was a nurse from San Borja. In our November 2024 trip we noticed that one nurse had very limited vision Both eyes had advanced cataract following a treatment with corticoids she had received for an unrelated condition 2 years previously. We asked her why she hadn’t come for assessment and she replied that she had not wanted to take one of the limited surgical spaces for her needs. She had put everyone else before herself.
A real professional but we wanted to help and so this May we operated both of her eyes for cataract. Her vision before surgery was hand movement in one eye and counting fingers vision in the other eye. She now has near perfect vision in both eyes and is able to continue helping others with her profession as a nurse. A lovely lady and a real pleasure to help her.
The two weeks in Santa Rosa flew by quickly with many lovely patients helped and the team working well together. We enjoyed a half day rest out on the river half way point of the trip which was a real treat. This part of Beni is extremely beautiful.
We have just completed our surgical audit of the last 200 operations carried out in Bolivia together with the results gained for each patient There are some lovely results in this document which is available for sharing with other NGOs and surgeons involved in similar work upon request.
Allied to surgery, we have introduced new screening services in northern Bolivia and have two new long-term projects running jointly which will prevent blindness. We have identified two key areas where services are lacking and need is high. With the right approach, we can make a difference. Our preventative projects are:
- Screening children for amblyopia.
- Identifying and treating primary open angle glaucoma
Both are underway and will continue as priorities in 2025 and beyond.
The amblyopia drive
We’re now on a mission to identify and treat childhood amblyopia—across remote communities. Early detection is key, so we’re organizing school and community screenings, and follow-up clinics, to ensure children can access specialist intervention and learn, thrive, and reach their full potential.
Every year AMM identify children blind with cataract or with amblyopia from refractive error or other causes. The success of treatment is always most impactful if these children can be identified and treated early.
Our project will make a difference in that we will reach a greater number of children over a broader geography, at an earlier point in time which will give them a greater chance of vision potential. If we are able to intervene quickly and effectively then vision can be preserved. Many children will just need glasses but options of patching their better eye and surgery are all possible within the service we offer.
Preventing blindness from glaucoma in the Beni
Additionally, we have turned our attention to glaucoma, the second leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. In Beni alone, it is estimated that 7,500 people are at risk of losing their sight if nothing is done.
Open angle glaucoma is not managed at all well in remote parts of Bolivia due to a combination of factors.
- Firstly, there is a poor understanding of the disease and low ability to diagnose.
- Secondly, very limited access to medicines.
- Thirdly, poor compliance of these medicines due to high cost and misunderstanding about the treatment goal.
The challenge is urgent. Glaucoma often goes undiagnosed until it’s too late, and medicines are costly, hard to access, and difficult for patients to use consistently.
Our plan is bold but achievable:
- Awareness campaigns on local radio and TV to help people understand the disease and seek help.
- Targeted screenings in larger towns and villages, focusing on older adults, family members of existing glaucoma patients and those with additional risk factors.
- Training of village doctors in disease management.
- Leading edge technology utilizing portable ocular coherence tomography with AI software to diagnose with very high accuracy.
- Introducing safe, modern treatment using a subthreshold diode laser — a one-off, painless procedure that lowers eye pressure, avoids the need for expensive eye drops and avoids the difficulty of supply of medicines to remote villages.
With this project, we aim to help hundreds glaucoma patients this year alone, while building a long-term system to identify, treat, and follow up with thousands more in years to come. You can watch our YouTube video on our glaucoma treatment plans.
Preventing blindness from eye emergencies
Emergencies don’t wait—and we’re ready to respond and continue expanding our support service to rural doctors and nurses.
- We’ve already trained 100 village doctors in recognizing and treating critical eye conditions like corneal ulcers, trauma, infections, chemical burns high pressure eye and other blinding diseases
- Launched the first-ever 24-hour emergency helpline, giving medical professionals real-time support to prevent sight loss in urgent cases.
Every patient operated, every eye screened, every call answered, every doctor trained advances our goal to eliminate avoidable blindness in Northern Bolivia.
Would you consider sharing our story, supporting the next wave of surgeries, or joining our volunteer team? Whether through funding, partnerships, or simply spreading the word—you continue to be the force that transforms vision into reality.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Dave Goldsmith RSCi
General Manager, Andean Medical Mission
dave@andeanmedicalmission.co.uk
www.andeanmedicalmission.co.uk
Each surgery has a story behind it and we have been sharing these on social media over the year.
Feel free to like our Facebook page and follow us on YouTube with our ongoing series - Beyond 2020.
