A Shout Out to "Change the World Kind of People."

This past summer I spent a week in Maryland visiting relatives and family. While there, I was fortunate to be selected to speak at a panel at a leadership conference, in which I met incredibly inspiring people, ranging from the mother of an autistic child, an AIDS activist from Cameroon, a consultant who helps place people with NGOs, a student activist at Yale etc...One of the common threads that we all discussed was that for many of us "our inspiration found us, instead of the other way around." Before our discussion I thought that this experience was unique to me with respect to my initially unplanned journey to Saudi Arabia, which lasted nearly a decade.

That period in Riyadh was a life-changing experience for me in many ways (that would require a separate blog post, or ?novel)...But, one of the most important lessons from that time was how many truly blind people there are in the world. I was fortunate to be part of a very intense effort at the largest eye hospital in the world (The King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital) to "stamp out blindness in Asia Minor." Hence, my continued interest in international ophthalmology even though I have been back in the U.S. for nearly four years

Later that same week in Maryland, I met a friend of mine from college and her husband who have dedicated their post student lives to public health projects in the third world, including Vit A supplementation to prevent night-blindness (a great cause--speaking as an ophthalmologist). They have been living in Indonesia for the past five years and had just completed study on prenatal vitamin supplementation to pregnant women. The study involved over 30, 000 women.

I also have friends referenced before in this blog, who spent two years overseas doing mission work as ophthalmologists in Nigeria. I met them in Saudi Arabia, along with many of my most inspirational friends. Another example of such a friend from Saudi is an ex--airforce pilot, turned ophthalmologist, who has adopted five children (at last count) of mixed ethnicities.

I have been truly blessed to have had the privilege of the friendship of such great people.Every time I meet people like these, I feel refreshed, re energized and enthusiastic...

Thus I want to give shout-out to my inspired friends who have dedicated tremendous effort to such altruistic causes...and who continue to inspire me...