The "German Commitee for the Pre­vent­ion of Blind­ness" (DKVB) was foun­ded in 1980. The as­so­ci­ation has been ac­tive in Tan­zan­ia from the very be­gin­ning. How­ever, even to­day there is on­ly one ophthal­molo­gist for 1.5 mil­lion people li­ving in the Sum­ba­wan­ga re­gion - an area as big as Ba­varia.

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To address this prob­lem, DKVB and locals set up an eye camp at Ati­man Hos­pital 2017. Twice a year, pa­tients are ex­ami­ned and op­era­ted on here over a two weeks per­iod. Up to one thousand people come from very far away. The numer­ous and seri­ous ill­nes­ses are dis­con­cer­ting. Lo­cal and Ger­man staff work hand in hand to help people.

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In Tanzania, cataract is the cause of blindness in 65% of cases. The eye­sight of these blind people can be restored by an operation in which the lens behind the pupil is re­pla­ced. However, there are often insufficient financial re­sour­ces for these opera­tions.

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The Children's Fund Foundation will finance 50 cataract operations for children at the Eye Camp in 2020, which are more expensive as they are performed under general an­aes­­thesia. This will be pre­ce­ded four weeks in ad­van­ce by an an­nounce­ment on lo­cal ra­dio sta­tions and pub­lic no­tices.