Tanja Bause
26 September 2008
In a little room on the fifth floor of the Central State Hospital in Windhoek sits Lahja Hangula, the only person in Namibia who makes artificial eyes.
Her products are so lifelike that one has to take a very close look indeed to tell the difference between them and a real eye.
She was working for an eye specialist in Windhoek and became interested in artificial eyes while watching a South African medical technician who visited Windhoek regularly to provide this service to people who have lost an eye.
She used every opportunity to watch and learn, and eventually went to South Africa for a three-month course on artificial eye making.
Upon her return, she quit her job with the eye specialist and started working for Government six years ago.
"This is a gift and I need to help a lot of people. By working in a private practice I cannot help the people who most need me," she says.
Most of her clients are State patients who cannot afford to pay a huge amount of money for an artificial eye.
People from neighbouring countries like Angola and Botswana also come to her for help.
Making eyes requires a very steady hand, artistic flair and lots of patience.
Each person's eye socket is shaped differently and there is great variation in eye colours.
Each artificial eye is thus a unique work of art.
The artificial eyeball is measured and fitted, the colour mixed and matched to ensure that it exactly matches the white of the customer's other eye.
The iris is then hand-painted onto the finished eyeball and tiny red veins are added with strands of cotton.
"The most beautiful part of creating an eye is putting the veins in the eye," Hangula says.
This is extremely delicate work and once it is done the eye looks as lifelike as possible.
It is not only with her craftsmanship in making eyes that she changes the lives of her customers but also with her compassion and positive attitude.
Nico Geingob (19) is one of the people whose life Hangula has changed.
Nico lost his eye a year ago after he was struck with a bottle at a wedding.
He dropped out of school and was feeling suicidal.
Hangula made him an eye and offered to pay his school fees to enable him to complete school.
Once he has graduated, she will take him under her wing and teach him the art of making artificial eyes.
"I always wanted to become a doctor and through this I can still help people," says Nico.
"He would be very good in the job, as he also only has one eye and thus he can relate with the patients," Hangula says.
Another person who can now walk down the street without feeling shy is Balbina Shilongo (29).
She lost her eye when she was a baby and had never heard of artificial eyes until Hangula stopped her in the street and advised her to go to the State Hospital.
Shilongo's empty eye socket was very small and under-developed.
Because of this, she had to get a small artificial eye which is adjusted and refitted every six months to stretch the socket to match the size of her healthy eye.
Unevenly matched or not, Shilongo was beaming with joy when she first looked in the mirror and saw two eyes looking back at her.
Two maxillofacial specialists, Sarah Quinn and Barry Edwards from the Queen Victoria Hospital in England, recently taught Hangula new techniques in making prosthetic eyes.
They also made artificial ears for the fist time in Namibia and passed this knowledge on to Hangula as well.
"I have learned a lot but it is impossible to learn everything in a week," saus Hangula.
Quinn and Edwards were sponsored by the Institute of Maxillofacial Prothetists and Technologists and the Queen Victoria Hospital to come to Namibia for a week to share their expertise and help as many patients as they could.
"We helped about 12 people but it is not so much about helping the people as it is about passing on the knowledge so that Lahja can in future help more people, and not only with eyes.
"Burn victims need ears, noses and other limbs which she could make here locally, she only needs more training and to gain experience," said Edwards.
Hangula has been invited to the Queen Victoria Hospital to learn more about prostheses and she would love to go, but funding is a problem.
"Lahja makes the most wonderful eyes from materials which we would throw into the bin and with methods and equipment where we go: 'oh my gosh - she has created masterpieces'," said Quinn.
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