“That lady who was going blind? Look at her now!”

The tarmac regularly breaks up or disappears entirely, sending us careering off-road onto dirt tracks. As I grip the handle on the roof of the car, I learn that the medical team from Lodwar District Hospital –  who travelled ahead of us earlier in week – make this journey once a month to hold eye camps in Kakuma Mission Hospital, a health facility located in the far north-west of Turkana County, near the border with Sudan. Locals are expected to pay for their treatment, leaving the poorest residents unable to afford help.

Lodwar is the capital of Turkana County: the team’s usual base at Lodwar Hospital is the government regional referral hospital for the entire region, which has a population of almost a million people. This medical team conduct outreach camps and operations across the county as part of Sightsavers’ CATCH programme.

Kakuma, our destination, borders South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia. As well as its harsh climate, it’s also known for being the site of Kenya’s second-largest UNHCR refugee camp. The locals here are nomadic livestock farmers, and providing healthcare for a population with no fixed abode is difficult.

Trachoma, a potentially blinding eye disease, is all too common here: repeated infection leads to scar tissue on the eyelids that causes them to gradually turn inwards and scratch the cornea, causing intense pain and, eventually, blindness. The flies that surround the cattle carry the disease, leaving the farmers open to infection. There’s also a lack of water sources, which means people don’t wash their faces regularly, contributing to the spread of the disease.

On the evening of our arrival at the refugee camp, we’re taken to a run-down building within the staff compound: these guest quarters are to be our accommodation for the next two nights. With broken windows and ripped mosquito nets over the single beds, we double up the nets with our own to keep out the bugs, and bathe out of buckets. At night the temperature remains above 30 degrees. I’m thankful for the fan provided, and grateful that the electricity to the building is still connected.

On our first morning at Kakuma Mission Hospital we find a line of patients waiting quietly on a bench outside the surgical room, some with bandages over one eye. It’s the end of the week of eye examinations and operations, and we’re told the corridors were even busier earlier in the week.

Many of the women wear striking strings of beads around their necks: I notice one woman also has a pair of tweezers hanging from a silver wire at the bottom of her beads. I’ve heard of this practice, but haven’t seen it before: it’s a brutal home remedy for trachoma sufferers. As their eyelashes start to turn inwards, they use the tweezers to pluck out the lashes and ease the pain.