DR SOLOMON GURAMATUNHU
THE COMPASSIONATE DOCTOR WHOSE SHARP EYES SEE INTO YOUR EYES.
By Tapfuma Machakaire 27/2/2023
A lesson from the United World College of Waterford Kamhlamba in Swaziland, that “everyone has the capacity to do great exploits for the betterment of the human race,” has given birth to an outstanding, dedicated and compassionate health practitioner in Zimbabwe.
Dr Solomon Guramatunhu, a veteran eye surgeon says “Waterford etched into my constitution the fact that I am a full and equal member of the human race, expected to make my contribution to the betterment of society. It changed my life story in ways I never imagined or dreamt about.”
Established in 1963, Waterford was one of the first schools in Southern Africa to welcome students irrespective of race, religion or socio-economic background.
Guramatunhu became a household name around 2004 when he launched Eyes for Africa, a programme that saw eye specialists providing free treatment to thousands of desperate communities in rural areas of Zimbabwe.
“The idea of Eyes for Africa was to help poor people in the rural areas who could not afford treatment but are blind from cataracts,” said Guramatunhu.
When the programme commenced the team would attend an average of two hundred patients every week as they moved around different parts of the country.
In an interview in March 2020 Guramatunhu explained how he came up with the idea of the Eyes for Africa project.
“Because it was feeling static and my job at that moment was to market ophthalmology on TV, talking about eyes. Slowly Zimbabweans started to apply for ophthalmology. I am grateful because this project took us everywhere be it Kariba, Chipinge and Mutoko, we went everywhere in this country.”
He said the project even extended to neighbouring Zambia and Namibia.
Dr Guramatunhu recalls the emotional moment when a woman in Ndola province of Zambia regained sight after undergoing surgery.”You can imagine,this is somebody who is now totally blind, has given birth and had not seen their child and had not seen her mother for three years. When we operated on her, she opened her eyes. “She could see her child for the very first time and could see her mother again. I can never forget her face. She just could not believe it and then she smiled and she started crying and everybody around started crying.”
Cataracts occur when any part of the primary focusing mechanism, the crystalline lens behind the iris, becomes cloudy, opaque or yellow. This result is the failure of the lens to let in light, and vision is reduced or eliminated.
Guramatunhu said through the programme over 50 000 patients were treated with more than forty doctors being trained to conduct the surgeries.
Fund raising activities that included golf tournaments and offers of support from Rotary clubs in Zimbabwe and South Africa were undertaken to support the programme.
Dr Guramatunhu who is touched by the plight of thousands of people who are going blind estimates that one percent of Zimbabweans are blind and the majority of the cases are due to cataracts.
“In the rural areas today we talk of a double tragedy because we have elderly people, grandmothers, grandfathers who have lost off springs due to HIV/AIDS so they become the custodians of the orphans. The grandparents then go blind because of cataracts, which means they cannot look after those orphans. So you end up with these little children looking after their grandparents, and most of them then opt out of school to be able to look after them.”
Solomon Guramatunhu was born in Nyazura, a small town in Manicaland province, seventy kilometres from the city of Mutare. He was born in a family of seven where he was the second eldest. His father was a domestic worker who worked for a Jewish family while the mother was a housewife.
He did his primary education at Zambuko and later St Peters school in Nyazura. He then proceeded to Nhohwe Mission in Macheke for secondary education. Life took a turn for Guramatunhu when he heard about Waterford Kamhlamba United World College in Swaziland from one of the founder students, Professor Alan McGregor. The founder of the college, Michael Stern, managed to secure a place and a scholarship for Guramatunhu at the college in 1973. “The Multiracial, multicultural and the general ambience at the college was almost utopian.”
He says it was at the college that he was taught that all human beings are the same and that race, culture, religion and class need not be a barrier to achievement.
“Waterford gave me the solid foundation on which to build my career and it also inspired my involvement in projects that benefit underprivileged communities and society at large.”
After Waterford Guramatunhu studied medicine at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ).
“In my class of medicine at UZ we were about fifty two and only about eight or nine of us were black. It was a trying time, which I suppose helped us a lot because we would work extra hard to make it. I then went to Mpilo Central Hospital to work as a junior doctor,” said Guramatunhu.
He later proceeded to Scotland where he specialized in ophthalmology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh.
Dr Guramatunhu worked as the Chief Government Ophthalmologist in Zimbabwe and was instrumental towards the establishment of the post-graduate training programme in ophthalmology at the University of Zimbabwe.
He was the man behind the establishment of Sekuru Kaguvi Eye Unit at Parirenyatwa General Hospital.
“I came back in the early 90s and we were really primitive.We did not have operating microscopes and proper instruments and when I look back it was exciting for me to have this challenge and I had this opportunity to build a department, a tertiary centre where we brought in lots of equipment. I was working with friends from the States and it was called Surgical High Expeditions,” said the Doctor.
Guramatunhu also serves on boards of a number of institutions. He is the Chairman of Bindura University of Science Education and is the Patron of Zimcare Trust which supports people with mental challenges.
He is also the patron of the Zimbabwe Rural Schools Library Trust which promotes construction of libraries and computer centres in rural schools. Through the project the Doctor supported the construction of a library and computer centre at Zambuko Primary School in Nyazura where he did his primary education.
Dr Guramatunhu says he is disgusted by black women who put on artificial hair which they believe enhances their beauty.
“How this started was when I was walking in town and I saw our ladies slapping and scratching their scalps and I observed that other races do not do that. I asked the girls in my office and they said it is the weaves, they itch.“I asked myself what is this? How did we black people end up in this space where we buy this and pay United States dollars for this?
“When we grew up there were no weaves, so how did this start, who started it and who told the black lady that you are not beautiful, to look this beautiful you must wear this thing?”
He may have strayed from eye care to the hair but his greatest wish is for a society where the poorest of the poor enjoy all the basic needs, by getting adequate health care, good schools and three meals a day.
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