The New Face of Africa: Dr. Helena Ndume
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| Dr. Helena Ndume |
As we continue our series The New Face of Africa we feature Dr. Helena Ndume an ophthalmologist working in Namibia to help people see again. Helena Ndume is New Face of African progress. She studied medicine in Germany before returning to Namibia where she is tirelessly devoted to helping Namibians regain their vision.
Brief Bio: Dr Helena Ndume was born in Tsumeb to Mr. Lukas and Lydia Ndume. At the age of 15 she left the country for exile where she lived in Zambia, Gambia and Angola. She qualified as a medical doctor in Germany. In 1989 she returned to Namibia and completed her medical internship at the Katutura and Windhoek Central hospitals. With the encouragement of Dr Libertine Amadhila, she was sent off again to Germany where she specialised in ophthalmology at the University of Leipzig. She later spent six months in India, where she learnt about and treated thousands of people with tropical diseases found mainly in developing countries.
While attending a conference in the United States in 1995, she visited the booth of the US surgical eye expedition. She took their contact details and contacted them when she returned home the following year. As the saying goes, the rest is history.
Dr Ndume and her colleagues have been organising eye camps throughout the country where the eye sight of many Namibians have been restored. This project is now held four to five times a year in different regions of the country.
Dr Ndume heads up the eye department at the Windhoek Central Hospital. A phenomenal Namibia woman indeed! (Courtesy of MyNamibia.com)
Dr. Helena NdumeNdume for helping others to see what you see.