Our GoodVision Malawi team recently supported a week-long skills upgrade for the Mzimba South Eye Team, sending five staff, a cataract surgeon, theatre nurse, ophthalmic clinical officer, optometrist, and patient attendant, to Nkhoma Mission Hospital’s Ophthalmology Department for hands-on training from May 18 to 22.
The attachment responded to a real and pressing need. Screening activities across Mzimba South District had identified 245 cataract cases spread across 23 of the district’s 32 health facilities, many of them in communities far from Mzimba District Hospital itself, some more than 100 kilometers away. Cataract surgery is one of the most cost-effective interventions in global health, but only if the local team has the skills and confidence to deliver it well and sustain it over time.
At Nkhoma, the team worked through the full cataract care pathway together. The surgeon refined technique on a progression of cases, from straightforward white cataracts to more complex ones, sharpening skills in capsulotomy, IOL insertion, and reducing the risk of complications during surgery. The theatre nurse strengthened infection prevention practices and instrument handling. The ophthalmic clinical officer and optometrist practiced biometry, tonometry, and diagnostic techniques that make patient selection and surgical planning more precise.
Even the patient attendant, often the person spending the most time with a nervous patient before surgery, came away with new skills in instrument disinfection, guiding patients safely, and post-operative visual acuity checks.
The team also reviewed six documented surgical practice cases together, an honest look at outcomes that included both strong results and a couple of complications, exactly the kind of case review that builds better judgment over time.
What stood out most was how the training reinforced something GoodVision what we have come to learn after doing this for 14 years: sustainable eye care depends on local teams who can deliver it themselves, not on recurring outside support. The Mzimba South team is now better equipped to screen, operate, and follow up on their own patients, closer to home, with fewer barriers standing between a person and the surgery that could restore their sight.
Looking ahead, the team and GoodVision Malawi are exploring ways to keep this momentum going, longer attachments for deeper practice, continued outreach to hard-to-reach facilities, and stronger systems for tracking patient outcomes after surgery.
An ophthalmic clinical officer practices keratometry, a key measurement for surgical planning.
Join the movement and get stories of impact and innovation from around the world
Follow us
Get involved
Contact us
© 2026 56 Broad St STE 14591 Boston MA 02109, GoodVision USA, Inc., a US 501 (c)(3) public charity, EIN 83-1871284