“I left working in a major hospital and entered the world of global eye health.”

Poonam has been working for CBM since June 2023. We caught up with her to hear about her journey to working as an Inclusive Eye Health Advisor:

How did you get into global eye health?

“By background I’m an optometrist. I trained for three years at City University in London and then went to work at one of the leading hospitals in the world in Cambridge University Hospitals as a specialist optometrist. I left working in a major hospital and entered the world of global eye health because there’s a huge gap there and a huge impact that needs to be made.

What does your role involve?

“I work in the Inclusive Eye Health team as a technical advisor. My role involves giving advice to the countries we work in and providing them with resources and support to carry out projects in inclusive eye health.”

Can you tell us about a project you have visited?

“One of the countries we work in is Kenya, and I visited our projects there to see what our partners are doing. By partners, I mean people and local organisations that we as CBM Global support. Recently I was able to go and see some outreach work. And this is where people from villages come to a particular location and where clinicians and health professionals will go over to assess their eyes and screen for any eye conditions. In the end, about seventy people were identified as needing cataract surgery.”

What do you love most about your role?

“This is where I feel I can serve the most. Of course, I often want to go back into a hospital role and see patients because I love doing that, I love the interaction. But I just feel in this particular role I’ll be reaching and having an impact on many more people across the world.

Thank you to Poonam! You can find out more about our sight-saving work here.