Here at Misericordia, we don't actually ask staff to provide accounts of their holidays. But if we did, there is no doubt ophthalmologist Dr. Stephen Brodovsky would take top honors with: MY TRIP TO ETHIOPIA.

Inspired by a former colleague, Dr. Brodovsky hopped on a plane with a box of donor cornea - getting though security is another story entirely - and the intent to make a difference in a developing country. The trip was organized by Orbis, a global non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating avoidable blindness worldwide.

And training is exactly what Dr. Brodovsky, who specializes in conceal diseases, offered. He assisted an Ethiopian ophthalmologist, Dr. Elias Hallu, perform the first corneal transplant at the Jimma University Hospital and supervised four subsequent cases. Dr. Brodovsky also performed seven cataract surgery operations during his volunteer trip.

Ethiopia has just opened its first Eye Bank and the newly trained surgeons are beginning to treat patients. Nearly one million Ethiopians are blind and an estimated additional three to four million are visually impaired.

"It's astounding," says Dr. Brodovsky. "Three are only four corneal transplant surgeons in the whole country. We have four here at Misericordia's Eye Care Centre of Excellence."

Since 1893, Misericordia Health Centre has been providing compassionate high quality health care to those most in need in accordance with our core values: caring, respect and trust Misericordia provides an array of specialized programs including our Eye Care Centre of Excellence, long-term and interim care, urgent care, ambulatory clinics, diagnostic imaging, laboratory services and pediatric dental surgery. Misericordia is also home to the internationally recognized Provincial Health Contact Center, including Health Links-Info Sante. For more information, please visit our website at www.misericordia.mb.ca