Milpitas Group Volunteers to Restore Sight to the Blind in Ghana

Restoring sight to the blind—sounds like something that would require a miracle.

For the poor in West Africa, however, it’s a very realistic goal, say Charles Narh and Dr. Kris Karlen of Kaiser Permanente in Milpitas, who are part of Help is on the Way Ministries (HIOTWM).

HIOTWM is a nonprofit, humanitarianism organization dedicated to bringing physical, spiritual, social and financial assistance to poor, developing countries in need. A large part of their work takes place in West African nations such as Ghana.

Narh, an eye technician, and Dr. Karlen, a renowned opthalmologist, said that what makes restoring sight to the blind in Ghana a very real possibility is the fact that most of the blindness in Ghana is curable by surgery—such as with cataracts, glaucoma and other reversible conditions.

Unfortunately, there are only 40 ophthalmologists to serve 20 million people in Ghana.

Therefore, HIOTWM regularly performs medical missions to Ghana to bring supplies and volunteer with ophthalmologists in mobile clinics.

Divine Inspiration

Narh, a native of Ghana himself, was inspired to found Help is on the Way Ministries after what he calls “a divine intervention” took place in his own life, when he was at a point where he had reached rock-bottom.

Narh attended high school in Ghana, then went to London to do college work in optics. After a trip back to Ghana, and being reminded of the desperate condition many natives there live in, Narh said he experienced a “serious transformation.”

“I believe I was stopped in my tracks by the Lord,” he said. “It really changed my perception of what life is all about.”

Narh remembers the day he dreamed up HIOTWM, and where the name came from.

“I was in a situation where I’d come to the bottom of my life,” Narh recalled. “I was living in a woman’s garage in a single bed that was very small, and I was thinking, how did I come to this point?”

Narh said the answer came to him in a dream—three dreams, actually.

In each of three separate dreams, Narh said he heard the words, “help is on the way.”

“I was sure it had come from the Lord,” he said. “From that point on, I wanted to be sure I wasn’t only thinking about myself.”

So, Help is on the Way was born.

Narh set about forming a board of directors for the organization. Karlen, one of his colleagues at Kaiser, quickly went aboard when he heard about what Narh was trying to accomplish.

Setting Up a Clinic in Ghana

Eventually, Narh says his ultimate goal is to raise enough money through HIOTWM to build an eye clinic for the whole of Africa, to be based in Ghana.

“It would be a center of excellence that would have good diagnostic machines, where people could come to have cataract, glaucoma and retina surgeries, and we could treat diabetes of the eye,” Narh explained. “People could send their patients from all over the region of Africa.”

With HIOTWM’s financial status, the organization can afford to fund smaller projects at this time, to take over supplies, fly out doctors like Narh and Karlen to do volunteer procedures and diagnoses, and to partner with Christian Eye Ministries in the area, adding to the services the group already provides.

Other HIOTWM Projects

Though “Restoring Sight to the Blind” is one of the biggest projects HIOTWM works on annually, the group also raises money to help bring clean drinking water to the people of West Africa and to support the educations of African children.

Earlier this year in March, HIOTWM donated some volunteer time and funds to a project in Lipke-Abrani in West Africa, helping to provide clean drinking water to a village there. Many villages in the area were displaced because of the Volta Dam Project to build electrical infrastructure in the country, but unfortunately, that disrupted access to clean water for thousands of villagers as well.

In Lipke-Abrani, there are only four boreholes—holes made in the ground to access water—that can serve a maximum of 1,200 people. Unfortunately, there are 4,000 in the region. Therefore, many villagers are forced to travel long distances to get water from small, polluted streams, which can spread typhoid, cholera and “river blindness.” And, naturally, there are insufficient medical facilities to treat the sick.

HIOTWM also sponsors scholarship drives to help pay for the education of many African children and hopes to help build a vocational training center in the Tokuroano region.

How Can the Average Person Help?

Though Narh is a Christian who likes to spread his gospel to any villagers who wish to receive it when he is on medical missions, he says, one does not have to practice a particular religion to be a part of HIOTWM or to support its efforts in any way.

“We want people to know, we are not a church,” he said, explaining that the term “ministry” confuses many, in that regard. “You just have to love to help human beings—then you’re qualified to be a part of HIOTWM.”

Narh said the group plans a Help is on the Way Ministries Ghana Benefit Dinner, to take place on Nov. 5 from 5-10 p.m. at St. John Baptist Church in Palo Alto. Traditional West African food will be served, and authentic Ghanian art and jewelry the doctors bring back with them from Ghana on their many trips will be sold, all to benefit the cause. Tickets are $40 for adults, and $10 for children 15 and under.

For more information about HIOTW, to purchase tickets to the dinner or to donate to the organization in another way, visit hiotwm.org.