Pala Ambassador

Chipo Mweemba

Chipo Mweemba was born in Mungu, Zambia in 1990 and is now ensuring the Chinsali district is being empowered through the gift of good sight as District Eye Coordinator.

Optometrist performing eye examination in Zambia

After excelling in sciences and engineering at school, Chipo went to work as a mechanic with his father – before being encouraged to attend university by a customer. The admissions assistant suggested Chipo take the new Optometry course. From here, Chipo graduated top of his class and started volunteering with Vision Action (Pala’s charity partner) right away.

It’s at this point in Chipo’s journey, that our paths cross.

Chinsali DCH

Deployed by the ministry of health to the Chinsali Vision Centre, which was built and equipped by Pala funding and VAO rollout, he started serving as Lead Optometrist and has since progressed to District Eye Coordinator.

To date, Chipo has attended to over 20,000 patients, dispensed over 5000 spectacles and restored the vision of just as many people.

As you can imagine, Chipo’s responsibilities stretch far and wide. But offering a service isn’t enough for him. With an ambition to show policymakers the devastating effects of poor or lost eyesight, and drum up the support and resources required to stop millions of lives from being negatively impacted by a lack of this basic human right.

Chinsali vision centre and optometry team

We’re very much looking forward to gathering and sharing more stories from Chipo to bring to life our joint mission of seeing the world better through the provision of accessible eyecare.

If you have a question for Chipo, drop us an email and we’ll ask!

Learn more about his successes in Chinsali here or get Chipo’s story in more detail.