Col. Shardool Sharma / MONUC
As part of MONUC's medical assistance to the local population, a surgical eye camp was held at the MONUC level three hospital in Goma on 16-17 January 2009, where ophthalmologist Lieutenant Colonel V.K. Baranwal of the MONUC Indian contingent performed over 30 surgeries for local people with eyesight problems.
Local patients from one to 86 years of age, including three children suffering from congenital cataracts, were treated using a state of the art technology called "phacoemulsification."
The camp was inaugurated by Colonel J.S. Negi, Acting Commander of MONUC's North Kivu brigade, MONUC Electoral Coordinator Mr. M. Fritz Krebs and Colonel I.P. Arora, Commanding Officer of the hospital.
Colonel Arora informed the dignitaries as well as the patients attending the camp that over one hundred eye surgeries had been conducted at the hospital using "phacoemulsification," which is only available in the DRC at the MONUC Goma hospital.
Colonel J.S. Negi expressed MONUC's concern for the civilian population, and the need to help local people in need of eye surgery.
He complimented the professionalism of the staff at the hospital, and assured the civilian population that MONUC's North Kivu brigade would continue to support and assist them as much as possible.
MONUC Electoral Coordinator Mr M. Fritz Krebs said that MONUC was there to keep the peace and assist the population of the DRC, in line with United Nations values.
He underlined the assistance provided by MONUC and its Goma hospital in various spheres of life, and assured them of MONUC's full support to humanitarian aid in the future.