SAN FRANCISCO – Two distinguished and selfless ophthalmologists have received the American Academy ofOphthalmology’s Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award, presented at the 2006 Joint Meeting held in Las Vegas, November 11-14.

Professor Ghulamqadair A. Kazi, MBBS, and C. Downey Price, MD, were recognized earlier this month for their participation in charitable activities, indigent care, community service and other humanitarian activities.

For their dedication, leadership, and commitment to providing services to the poor and needy populations around the world, the American Academy of Ophthalmology is privileged to honor Dr. Kazi and Dr. Price with this year’s Outstanding Humanitarian Service Awards.

Serving the Underserved

During most of his career, Dr. Kazi has provided eye care to the underserved populations. In 1989, he pioneered the Isra Blindness Control Program (IBCP), a foundation dedicated to providing eye services to those in need in Pakistan. The IBCP program also extends to developing countries in Asia and Africa.

The objectives of the IBCP program go beyond providing cost-free outreach peripheral eye services. The program also has established eye care facilities at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels, as well as teaching and training facilities. These facilities have provided for the development of additional training needed for regional and extra-regional employment.

President and CEO of the foundation since its inception, Dr. Kazi and his teams have screened more than two million people, operated on 250,000 patients and distributed more than 500,000 reading glasses.

Dr. Kazi, a distinguished ophthalmologist in Pakistan, completed his ophthalmic training in the U.K. and is certified as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons Glasgow. He also did a fellowship in pediatric ophthalmology at King Khalid Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Following completion of his education he has been involved in ophthalmology patient care, teaching, training and research.

Dr. Kazi has received many awards, including the Institute of Overseas Pakistani Award, The Pan Arab Council of Ophthalmology Award and in 2006, and the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology’s Outstanding Service in Prevention of Blindness Award.

Building from the Ground Up

Dr. Price’s passion for medical missions began with a request from a missionary in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. The country had a desperate need for medical and surgical eye care, and Dr. Price responded.

Between 1974 and 1986, he led 17 medical mission teams to Leogane, Haiti, providing pro bono medical and surgical eye care.  Dr. Price helped raise funds and was able to fully equip an operating room, an eye clinic and staff quarters at Hospital Sainte Croix. 

In 1986, at the request of the Ministry of Health and the Methodist Church of Belize, Dr. Price and the Reverend B.T. Williamson started an eye care program.

With the help of donations from churches and the private sector, Dr. Price and others were able to build the first free standing eye clinic in Belize and later a new fully equipped surgery center in the northern city of Corozal.  Since 1986, two to four medical mission eye teams travel to Belize each year to provide free eye care.

In 1987, at the invitation of the Andean Rural Health, Dr. Price initiated medical eye teams, first to Carabuco on Lake Titicaca, and later to Cochabamba in Bolivia in the Andes Mountains. Dr. Price led medical teams, which provided eye care to the Aymara and Quechua Indians.

With the help of churches and the private sector, he was able to build and equip an eye clinic, outpatient surgery center and an optical lab.  In 1991 in El Salvador, Dr. Price and Rev. Williamson began an eye program. 

Funds were raised and a two story medical/surgical building was built in El Salvador, equipped to provide eye care for the underserved. Later, an optical lab was added and Dr. Price started annual medical mission trips to that country.

In 1992, Dr. Price and Rev. Williamson formed and incorporated Benevolent Missions International (BMI), a non-profit organization dedicated to providing pro bono medical and surgical eye care to underserved areas of the world. 

Dr. Price, along with others, accomplished their mission through BMI by recruiting health care professionals and lay personnel, providing cost free health care services and furnishing essential equipment and supplies.  Since the formation of BMI, Dr. Price has been instrumental in leading medical and surgical eye mission teams to Burundi, Central Africa, Costa Rica, Central America, Fiji and American Samoa.  Dr. Price credits his devoted wife, Edna, who provides her support, as well as her administrative services in helping raise funds and recruit volunteers for these missions. 

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About the American Academy of Ophthalmology
AAO is the world's largest association of eye physicians and surgeons—Eye M.D.s—with more than 27,000 members worldwide.  Eye health care is provided by the three “O’s” – opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists. It is the ophthalmologist, or Eye M.D., who can treat it all: eye diseases and injuries, and perform eye surgery. To find an Eye M.D. in your area, visit the Academy's Web site at www.aao.org.