Three clinicians from Cameroon will return to their country with medical skills learned from Shanxi Provincial Eye Hospital, enabling them to better serve local eye patients.

Doctors Yannick, Celestin and Chantal from Yaounde Women and Children's Hospital, were the first batch of exchange doctors who traveled to Shanxi to learn the latest medical skills in ophthalmology.

During the exchange lasting half a year, they improved their knowledge and practice of eye surgery, such as phacoemulsification for cataracts, as well as intraocular injection techniques.

"The training will greatly benefit our service to patients, with cataracts accounting for most cases of blindness caused by eye diseases in Cameroon," said Dr Yannick at the graduation ceremony on Feb 23.

"I was grateful to Shanxi Provincial Eye Hospital for the training," he added.

Shanxi Provincial Eye Hospital and Yaounde Women and Children's Hospital in Cameroon signed a cooperation agreement in September 2016 to help the Cameroonian side improve medical techniques and services related to ophthalmology.

The partnership was an extension of a program named "journey to brightness", a Chinese initiative providing free treatment for cataract patients in Africa. A team of experts from Shanxi Provincial Eye Hospital, as participants of the program, completed 627 cataract surgeries in Cameroon during May 2016.