MAF Tanzania

Dr Erick Msigomba and his team fly with MAF to Tabora, where they perform eye surgery for Tanzanians in deep need.
As Ernest Nicolaus Skalwanda enters the hospital, his hand is held by Abeli Pita Kamanija. As younger man leads a blind older man to life-changing surgery, it’s evident that the weight of five years of blindness has been weighing heavily.
There is something deeply moving about the bond between Ernest and Abeli. They share neither blood relations nor age. Ernest is a divorced man. Since his family abandoned him, he has learnt to depend on strangers for support.
When Ernest heard that the eye doctors were coming to Kaliua, he begged money from many different people to be able to travel for eye surgery.
Thanks to MAF, Tanzanian eye surgeon Erick Msigomba and his team flew from Njombe to Tabora, turning a two-day-journey by road into only two hours. With the delicate equipment, he and his team could not have managed to travel by road.
This one act of kindness set free 66-year-old Ernest, reclaiming for him independence and dignity.