The Chemistry Kid

While many college students spend their summer months on vacation, in school or at work, York chemistry major Daryl Ramai, 22, will conduct a research project across the globe in Ghana.

            The Forest Hills, Queens resident will accompany physicians from several institutions and students from prestigious universities such as Harvard and Yale when he goes to Africa from May 31 to July 20. Ramai is the only CUNY student involved in a special project that will bring eyeglasses and eye doctors to needy Ghanaian citizens.

         The project, Perceptions about Childhood Eye Care in Ghana, will be funded in part, by York’s Chemistry Department, Dean Panayiotis Meleties of the School of Arts and Sciences, and Dean Thomas Gibson, assistant dean of Student Development. Ramai was awarded $3500 from the department, which will be used for shipping eye- glasses, his airfare, food and lodging.

“My efforts in Ghana are two-fold. I’m going to Ghana to volunteer with local physicians and surgeons,” Ramai explained. “Our ultimate goal is to increase the amount of patients that eye doctors see on a day to day basis.”

               Since there are limited numbers of Ghanaian ophthalmologists and many cases of blindness in pediatric patients, Ramai is one of several participants in the global research project that aims to prevent eye-related diseases in the African nation. Focusing on Ghana’s children is one way to work toward improving the health of the country’s citizens, Ramai believes.



 According to Cureblindness.org, a website dedicated to eradicating blindness around the world, at least 200,000 Ghanaians are blind, while another 600,000 are visually impaired. About 75 percent of the world’s blindness is preventable.



Provided by: Daryl Ramai



Ramai said other organizations are involved in similar eye-saving efforts. The World Health Organization (WHO) initiative also hopes to reduce avoidable childhood blindness around the globe. In 1999, WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) initiated Vision 2020, to lower the current rate of pediatric blindness cases from 0.75 per 1000 to 0.3 per 1000.  

Ramai believes his work and that of his fellow project participants will not be an easy task.

“Once we know more about the perception to eye care (in Ghana), the better we can target families, the better ophthalmologists can target real villages,” said Ramai. “We will not be sitting on our butts at the clinics. We’ll have outreach camps, so we have the volunteering aspect and the research.”

             Always on the lookout for new and spontaneous adventures, Ramai's ultimate goal is to attend medical school after he graduates from York in January 2012. He wants to achieve his life-long dream of becoming a physician. Knowing the competitiveness of medical schools, Ramai decided to conduct a unique research project but also incorporate his passion for science, research and his love for travel and public service.

              “What they told me was that I can stay up until a year. Also, you have the option of pursuing a monthly set research. Research is a big passion of mine,” said Ramai. “They’ll train you in global health relations, and community eye health. In order for me to do the research, I have to acquire a certificate, which means more studying. Also, you have to shadow a physician. I got the opportunity to shadow New York’s best ophthalmologist, Dr. Wilson Ko.”

With the help of his mentor and York College deans, Ramai will make use of his project by donating 300 reading glasses and 200 eye implants to Ghanaian citizens. Ramai expects to receive 200 additional eye glasses before he leaves for Ghana.

              “This is a great opportunity for him (Ramai) to make a contribution for people in need but also for the college,” said Dean Meleties adding, “This is a new program that we are willing to work with in the future.”

                 Ramai had the option to conduct research in Africa, India or South America. Africa was the only country that really captured his attention. For his graduate degree, Ramai has applied to schools located in Boston, California, Massachusetts as well as New York. 

                “I have about 200 eye implants - small tiny lenses for patients that undergo cataracts eye surgery, and I got that from Dr. Ko,” said Ramai. “There’s this non-profit organization vision company called Vision USA and they collect all the reading glasses from pharmacies. All I have to pay is the shipping, which isn’t cheap as well.”

                While staying in Ghana, Ramai intends to learn the culture and local dialects. He will also be accompanied with translators from the Crystal Eye Clinic in Accra.

             “(Ramai) will interview mothers bringing their kids to eye care facilities,” said Prof. Deb Chakravarti, York’s chemistry chair.

              Working with members of an international outreach effort Unite for Sight, volunteer eye doctors routinely perform cataract surgeries and provide other care to patients free of charge, according to Unite for Sight’s website.

        Ramai is excited about his trip to Ghana and expects the best. Always engaged, the aspiring physician is working on two other research projects before he heads to Ghana.

                “I think there are 50 ophthalmologists in Africa itself, which means you have a one ophthalmologist per about a million patients and it is something that people should know about,” Ramai said.