Safe Eye Care for Women & Girls in Ethiopia

From a small town in Ethiopia to a cornea fellowship in Canada, Dr. Dagmawit Kifle is advancing eye care. Her training in specialised surgery and commitment to expanding services at home promise to transform vision health for thousands of patients in Ethiopia.

Growing up in a small town in Ethiopia, Dr. Dagmawit Kifle faced long walks to school and a culture where education was often reserved for boys. Encouraged by her mother, she persevered — determined to become a doctor and a role model for other young women.

That determination carried her through medical school, motherhood, and now to Canada, where she is completing a cornea fellowship with Orbis Canada, the Cure Blindness Project, and the University of British Columbia. Under the mentorship of Dr. Matthew Bujak, she’s mastering advanced surgical techniques and gaining experience with specialised imaging and transplant procedures rarely available in Ethiopia.

Her motivation is clear: to bring these life-changing skills back home.
At her hospital — the only tertiary eye centre serving more than 20 million people in Southwest Ethiopia — there is only one cornea specialist. Equipment is limited, and resources are scarce. Dr. Kifle hopes to change that by improving services, training staff, and helping establish Ethiopia’s first eye bank to make corneal tissue more accessible.

“This is my big, bright hope — that we can do more,” she says. “The skills I’m learning will help us transform eye care for thousands of people.”

Dr. Kifle’s journey from a small-town student, trained by Orbis, to an international fellow is creating a brighter, clearer future for her community — and inspiring the next generation of women in medicine.