Dr Jalikatu Mustapha (photo) is a young ophthalmologist and is one of just four eye doctors in Sierra Leone.
She has worked with local and international partners to make major changes to eye care delivery in Sierra Leone and bring about positive change. This has included improving eye health information in the country, completing a nationwide assessment of the eye health services available across Sierra Leone and the country’s very first cataract audit. Jalikatu has been instrumental in increasing rates of cataract surgeries in her department and in re-implementing a nationwide cataract surgical outreach campaign in hard-to-reach populations.
Her role in advocacy work for eye health has also meant that: for the first time, surgical outreach was conducted in a hard to reach area (Kabala) exclusively using government funds; Connaught hospital eye department received an anaesthesia machine and a anaesthetist; chemotherapy has been started for Retinoblastoma patients at the Ola During Children’s Hospital; and the first ever face-face engagement on eye health took place with the entire parliamentary committee on health in Sierra Leone. In her role as a lecturer at the University of Sierra Leone she has also inspired others to take up ophthalmology as a career.
Credit: Sightsavers, Ireland
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