Country Staff

Alice Mwangi is the Program Manager for The Fred Hollows Foundation's activities in Kenya. She has spent many years working with disadvantaged people and understands the challenges that the program must overcome. 

"Poverty levels are high in rural Kenya" says Alice. The need for eye health care is not in many cases a priority for the hungry" .

More than 107,000 Kenyans are blind due to cataracts and at least half of the country's ophthalmologists are located in the capital, Nairobi. Accessing eye care services for many Kenyans is near impossible.

Whilst relatively stable when compared to neighbouring countries, Kenya has experienced an economic down turn in the last decade and its people are falling further into poverty and poor health. Life expectancy fell from 67 years in 1993 to just 47.5 years in 2004, mostly due to widespread poverty and the emergence of HIV/AIDS.

Alice joined The Fred Hollows Foundation in 2004 and first set about establishing an office in Nairobi. The Foundation had run several short-term training and eye health projects in Eastern Africa since 1995 but there was a need to develop a longer term program.

In her role as Program Manager, Alice manages the day to day activities of the office and leads the development of the blindness prevention program, which is mostly focused in Nakuru, in the Rift Valley.  

Alice also works closely with The Foundation's Medical Adviser in Eastern Africa, Dr Wanjiku Mathenge, who is based in Nakuru.

Alice's biggest achievement since she commenced has been the renovation of the Nakuru Eye Unit at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital. The Eye Unit was upgraded in 2005 and is in the process of being equipped. Subsidised eye health care services have been introduced which will benefit the poorest of the poor.  

Alice is a dynamic and committed manager. Her passion for helping people developed while she was working as a secondary teacher in the slums of Nairobi.  The deplorable living conditions of the teenagers and their families touched her and she wanted to do more to help.

Driven by the desire to work closely with disadvantaged communities, Alice completed post- graduate studies in Planning and Management in Development Projects at the Catholic University of East Africa. 

Alice then secured trainee positions with some non-government community organisations, firstly Community Initiative Support Services and then the Needy Brethren.

With new skills and experience to offer, Alice joined a local organisation, Africa Focus, where she worked directly with the very poor and disadvantaged. As Program Officer, Alice spent time in the Mukuru slums of Nairobi, assessing the needs of the people and developing programs to assist them. 

These programs focused on the installation of toilets and taps for clean drinking water and also on educating these communities about health and sanitation issues. While working with Africa Focus, Alice developed sound program management skills, including planning and reporting, staff management and the ability to source funds for projects. 

Before joining The Fred Hollows Foundation, Alice worked with the Federation of Women Lawyers, a non-government organisation that champions the legal rights of poor women in Kenya. 

Whilst there, she led a program titled Engendering Political Processes, aimed at supporting aspiring female politicians.  The program contributed to the free and fair general elections in 2002 which resulted in an increase in the number of women voted into parliament.

In addition to her working life, Alice devotes much of her personal time to community work. She is a founding member of Com-Lead, a micro-credit development organisation and has held positions on the Boards of the Nairoten Women's Group and Africa Focus.

Alice is dedicated to improving the lives of the poor in Kenya. "Working with The Fred Hollows Foundation has given me the opportunity to realise my passion to work for and with the less fortunate members of the community" she says.

"My dream is met every time sight is restored through a Fred Hollows supported program". 

Like the late Professor Fred Hollows, The Fred Hollows Foundation's Medical Adviser in Eastern Africa, Dr Wanjiku (Ciku) Mathenge, has dedicated her life to helping others.

"I love my job, it's very satisfying" says Ciku. You can sit in an office and treat people all day or you can be in the operation theatre all day. It covers both sides of medicine".

Ciku first studied at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, completing her Bachelor of Medicine in 1988. Whilst studying she also honed her tennis skills and represented her country in the All Africa Games and at the Federation Cup!

After her graduate studies, Ciku worked as a medical officer in various departments of the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital in Nakuru, located 105 kilometres from the capital, Nairobi.

It was during this time that she became interested in a career in ophthalmology.

Originally drawn to pediatrics, Ciku's enthusiasm for ophthalmology was sparked when she was temporarily placed in the eye unit at the hospital.

"I went to the eye unit and really liked what was going on there. And the rest is history!" she says.

Ciku then completed her Master of Medicine (Ophthalmology) in 1995, graduating top of the class.

Ciku became involved with The Fred Hollows Foundation in late 1995, when she participated in a modern cataract surgery training program funded by AusAID.

Around 130 doctors from throughout Eastern Africa completed the training program in 1999.

As part of the program participants received an initial donation of intraocular lenses, sutures and surgical instrument sets (which are still being used today in some countries).

Ciku was also part of a smaller group of doctors from the program who were given additional support to become trainers, so as to be able to pass on their new skills to colleagues.

In 2002 Ciku completed her Masters degree in Community Eye Health at the International Centre for Eye Health in London. As part of her degree, Ciku completed a research project on vitamin A deficiency in prisoners at Nakuru Prison.

Towards the end of that year, The Fred Hollows Foundation employed Ciku to carry out an assessment of eye care needs in Eastern Africa and to suggest what role The Foundation could play in a regional eye health program.

As a result of the assessment Ciku was employed as The Foundation's Eastern Africa Medical Adviser and began establishing a program in Kenya, as a starting point to addressing avoidable blindness in the region.

Of the 300,000 people living with blindness in Kenya, approximately 43% are affected by cataract blindness, with an added annual incidence rate of more than 14,500 new cases.

In Africa there is less than one ophthalmologist for every million people and less than 10% of those requiring eye surgery actually receive it.

Ciku is now working with The Foundation's Program Manager in Kenya, Alice Mwangi, to establish a top quality eye centre at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital Eye Unit.

The Rift Valley Province is very poor, with many nomadic tribes and farmers. The program aims to increase the number of cataract operations performed and provide eye care services for those who live in the province.

Ciku will also continue to assist The Foundation with program direction, partnership development and clinical and public health recommendations. She is also keen to build awareness of The Foundation throughout Eastern Africa.

Ciku has been a full time Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital since 1996 and is currently the East and Central African representative of the International Centre for Eye Health Alumni.

In early 2006 the British Council for Prevention of Blindness (BCPB) awarded its first ever Sir John Wilson Prevention of Blindness Fellowship to Ciku. As a result, Ciku is studying for a PhD which will equip her for a more senior post in Kenya, where she will be influential in planning and implementing blindness prevention programs.

Ciku will be supervised at the prestigious International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH), based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The study will focus on a survey of leading posterior segment blinding diseases within the Nakuru region of Kenya.

It is hoped that the study will provide invaluable information about how best to prevent and treat blindness resulting from such conditions, which were previously thought only to be a problem in developed countries, but which have now been found to cause a significant amount of blindness in Kenya. It is anticipated that the study will be applicable in other developing countries.

Ciku will also lead a new cadre of top level professionals, funded by the BCPB, who will receive expert training in the United Kingdom.