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Author: innexus

India – A Future Leader in Global Eye Care

India Montage131 million people in India, including 11 million children, are blind or vision impaired from being uncorrected or under-corrected. Most are in rural areas.

Optometry Giving Sight, in association with founding partner the World Council of Optometry, is pleased to be a significant contributor to a program designed to make India a leader in eye health within the next 20 years. The Development of Optometry, Blindness Prevention and Vision Care in India program is implemented by the India Vision Institute (IVI), which was established by the Brien Holden Vision Institute and LV Prasad Eye Institute.

The building of local capacity is a major objective of the program, and over the past 36 months, IVI has conducted 58 capacity building workshops and 30 seminars; offered 466 registration scholarships, 15 student research grants, 17 travel grants and 2 higher education scholarships benefiting over 4300 optometry professionals.

They have also partnered with the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry to organize an Optometry Professional Development Workshop; and a workshop on Refraction Techniques & Clinical Implications was organized in partnership with the Indian Optometry Federation.

“The Indian Optometric profession in India is at a very important and exciting stage,” said Vinod Daniel, CEO with IVI. “The support provided by Optometry Giving Sight through its donors and sponsors is assisting the country in both building the necessary short term technical capacity in Optometry as well as the long term structural setup. Over the next two decades, India will become a global leader in eye care”.

Another key objective of the program has been the establishment of the Optometry Council of India. OCI is a professional self-regulatory body responsible for establishing and maintaining high standards of optometry education and recognition of optometry qualifications in India. To date, more than 500 optometrists have registered, including optometrists from Essilor India and Lawrence & Mayo. The registration is for a period of 3 years following which the optometrist has to renew the registration.

“Optometry as a profession in India is undergoing a sea change and history is being made with regards to affordable eye care, “ said Lakshmi Shinde, CEO of OCI. “The profession is getting more organized in terms of merging the different levels of optometry and self-regulating itself through an independent council. This, in concert with other important initiatives, will go a long way in providing quality eye care service to the public in India”.

IVI also has its eyes firmly on the future with the establishment of the Young Leaders Program, which was launched with a two-day workshop in Hyderabad on 12-13 April. The second workshop was held at Chennai on 11-12 October 2014. A group of 10 young optometry professionals is being groomed under this program to develop as future leaders of Indian optometry. The program includes practical demonstrations and theoretical sessions conducted by renowned Indian and international experts in the area of optometry, eye care and public health management.

Canada World Sight Day Challenge 2014

canada world sight day challengeThe World Sight Day Challenge is Optometry Giving Sight’s main fundraising campaign of the year to help eliminate avoidable blindness and impaired vision in underserved areas of the world. We are pleased to report that a record number of optometry practices, companies and students participated in the Challenge in Canada this October.

Donations are currently pouring in, and the final results will be reported early in the New Year. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who participated or donated. You are giving sight and hope to many people in need! You are also helping us inch closer to our global goal of raising $1 million.

Company Challenge: The Company Challenge in Canada saw 8 companies pledging support through employee donations and/or fundraising activities this year. Our thanks to WestGroupe, Essilor, Hoya Vision Care, Carl Zeiss Vision, FYidoctors, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, CooperVision and Younger Optiks for their participation – to the many other companies that made their annual donation.

Student Challenge: Preliminary results are in for some of the participants in the Student Challenge, which was an overwhelming success this year for the University of Waterloo and the University of Montreal optometry students who raised a record $7,258.66 and $10,005.91 respectively! Both schools held a ‘Dining in the Dark’ fundraising event with silent auctions for donated items including laser eye surgery gift certificates generously donated by Lasik MD and TLC Laser Eye Centres. Optical technician students at Cégep Garneau and the University of Calgary Pre-Optometry Club also participated this year.

Classic Challenge (Optometry Practices): Many wonderful amounts are being remitted from optometry practices across Canada. We are starting to hear of some of the many creative fundraising events that took place in FYidoctors, OSI, Eye Recommend, Vision Source and independent optometry offices throughout October. Here are just a few of them:

  • Staff members of Waterfront Eyecare in Penticton BC held a flashmob at their local farmer’s market to raise awareness and invite donations.
  • Killarney Vision Services in Killarney MB held their second annual ‘Dining in the Dark’ event, with staff members volunteering as servers for the meal to blindfolded participants.
  • Victoria Vision Eyecare in Victoria BC held a variation of an icebucket challenge where patients could make a donation to vote for whether Dr. Hildebrand, Dr. Webster, or Michael (business manager) at the office would get an icebucket dumped on their head.
  • Family Eyecare Centre in New Westminster BC held a ‘mobile’ bakesale, taking a wagon full of home-baked goodies around to all the businesses in the mall they reside in.
  • Optical Image in Swift Current SK held a variety of events, with the added incentive that if $5000 was raised, Optician Trent Tallon would shave his head, and if $10,000 was raised, Dr. Sasha Godenir would shave her head.

Our sincere thanks again to everyone who participated in the Challenge. If you haven’t yet made a donation, please add your support today and help us reach our goal. All donations are tax deductible.

canada world sight day challenge

Pioneering Optometry in Vietnam

Pioneering Optometry in VietnamFunding from Optometry Giving Sight and the AusAID East Asia Vision Program has provided for the successful completion of the first stage of an optometry education project in Vietnam.

The key objective of the project (to be completed by December 2016) is to establish the first ever optometry program in Vietnam, based at the Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University in Ho Chi Minh City (PNTU). It has been designed with its sustainability at the core.

An exciting milestone has now been reached with the approval of the training code for the program. This means that the first students will be accepted into the new optometry course at PNTU commencing in late October 2014 and will graduate around 20 optometrists per year.

Minh AnhMinh Anh’s bright future
Pioneer Vietnamese Optometrist Tran Minh Anh (pictured) will play a crucial role in optometry education for the future and may be a visiting academic at PNTU.

In Vietnam there are as many as 36 million people including 3 million children who have vision impairment due to refractive error. It is estimated that Vietnam needs 2,000 optometrists to ensure adequate coverage for refractive errors. There are currently just three.

Minh Anh initially had no interest or knowledge about optometry. Though she was looking for a career Minh was unable to settle on any profession. Four years ago her mother suggested she go and try out for an interview about a ‘course’ on optometry. Minh decided to attend the interview and curiosity got the better of her.

Eventually she was able to purse her optometry studies with the LV Prasad Eye Institute in India. As she progressed in her course Minh Anh became more enthusiastic about the optometry profession and decided that she had in fact found her calling. It dawned on her that she may take a lead herself and address the lack of good eye care in her own country.

Fast forward to 2014 and Minh Anh is an optometrist with great ambition. In 2 years time she will complete her Masters of Clinical Optometry degree from the University of Melbourne. Minh Anh currently works at the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO) in the Refraction Department.

eye examDespite the difficulty of the introduction of optometry as a new profession in Vietnam Minh Anh is determined to make a difference. She understands solving the human resource challenge in Vietnam doesn’t just begin and end with eye examinations and dispensing corrective eye wear.

“Optometry itself has lots of scope. I would love to be an optometry educator to inspire the minds of other aspiring Vietnamese optometrists. By finishing my degree I have increased Vietnam’s optometrists by one third, and while this is an achievement, we need many, many more optometrists to meet the national need for eye care,” she said.

Her goal is to provide comprehensive eye care services to the Vietnamese community and to pass on her knowledge and train the next generation of optometrists. This dream is about to become reality.

Minh Anh is confident of the bright future of the optometry profession in Vietnam.

“Optometry is a developing profession with great potential to create change and is currently gaining recognition throughout the developing world. In Vietnam, I believe optometry is pivotal to improving the eye health of my people,” Minh Anh said.

She is thankful for her many opportunities and is ready to inspire others to dedicate themselves to the life transforming profession of optometry.

The project is managed by the Brien Holden Vision Institute (BHVI) with implementing partners Ho Chi Minh City Eye Hospital (HCMCEH), PNTU, Hanoi Medical University (HMU) and the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO) as supporting partner. Funding is provided by Optometry Giving Sight and AusAID. Funding for Tran Minh Anh’s training at LV Prasad Eye Institute was provided by the Brien Holden Vision Institute and the Eye Care Foundation (Netherlands). Photos courtesy of BHVI.

A simple eye exam could have saved this woman’s sight!

Sorilia diagnosed with terminal glaucoma


When Sorilia’s daughter learnt about eye screenings happening in her community, she hoped there was a chance her mother’s sight could be restored.

Sorilia had lost her sight more than 8 years previously, and could no longer work or even walk anywhere by herself. She depended on her family to dress, eat, and go to church.

At the Vision Plus Clinic in Haiti she was diagnosed with terminal glaucoma.

Unfortunately, neither drugs nor surgery will allow her to recover her sight. This was not only devastating news for Sorilia, but also for the whole team at the Clinic.

That’s why the eye care team at Vision Plus (with support from visiting VOSH teams) undertake screenings and initial consultations in remote end underserved areas in northern Haiti, because potentially damaging eye health issues can be identified before they become critical.

Patients who receive referrals are treated by the locally trained ophthalmologists who own and run the Clinic. Their public / private practice model ensures that all people are guaranteed access to quality services no matter what their income.

Optometry Giving Sight is committed to ensuring that there are more “feet on the ground” in Haiti and is supporting the establishment of the first ever School of Optometry at Haiti University in the capital, Port au Prince. Our hope is that we will have raised enough funds to welcome the first students to the School commencing in October 2016.

Some good progress is already being made with a new medical building being constructed on the University campus, thanks to funds provided by the US Government. The building will be large enough to include the School of Optometry, and there is provision being made for a community Eye Clinic to be included as part of the School.

We still need to raise more funds to enable the School to proceed, and would welcome your support. Our hope is that in the future, people like Sorilia will not be denied access to treatment simply because there are no services available in her community.

Optometry Giving Sight is working in partnership with VOSH International and Brien Holden Vision Institute to fund the development of the School in Haiti and has received much needed financial support from ​Essilor Canada and Vision Source® in USA.

Ralph from Haiti

RalphTransforming lives through the gift of vision

As the Holiday Season approaches, your thoughts may turn to seeing family, friends and celebrating together.

Many children around the world have difficulty seeing their loved ones, reading the blackboard at school or being able to play outside with their friends.

Like millions of children suffering poor vision due to avoidable blindness, Ralph’s future was in question.

However, after an eye screening and a new pair of glasses, everything changed for him.

For as little as $5/£3 you too can transform a child’s life to see and create a better future.

A donation of $100/£50 could help up to 20 children with an eye exam and a pair of glasses in an under served community escape the poverty cycle.

Please consider making a donation today and know that you will have given this Holiday Season a wonderful gift for life – sight.

Thank you for your generosity.

Ralphgettingacheckup

 

We wish you and your family a joyous and safe holiday season.

Optometry plays a role in the reconstruction of Haiti

GirlHaiti“This is a wonderful time to be part of the reconstruction of our country. “

Optometry Giving Sight is part of a coalition made up of the Brien Holden Vision Institute and VOSH International, organizations that are trying to play a role in the reconstruction of Haiti by establishing an optometry school at the State University of ‘Haiti.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. In this country of ten million inhabitants, there are only three optometrists and six ophthalmologists in the public sector.

As a result, more than 70 percent of Haiti’s population has poor access to eye care services, which prevents them, to a large extent, from breaking the cycle of poverty through better education and better jobs. .

Reconstruction of the hospital in Haiti

HaitiConstruction“A trained workforce is a crucial link between the services and the processes required to solve a problem,” says Dr. Dave McPhillips, President of VOSH International. “In Haiti, a successful and strategic intervention will greatly reduce the blindness and visual impairment of millions of people in need. “

The optometry school will be part of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy. It will be located on the new national health sciences campus under construction (thanks to funding from USAID). 

 

“Even if the reconstruction work in Haiti is still underway, we are ready to move forward in the areas of health and vision care,” said Dr.  Jean-Claude Cadet, dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the University of Haiti. “This is a wonderful time to be part of the reconstruction of our country. “

According to very conservative estimates, this school should train 16 students per year. During their first year of work, these students will be able to care for at least 24,000 patients. Then, each following year, there will be at least 16 other graduates, which means that after the fifth graduate cycle, new optometrists will be able to treat 360,000 patients, about 80 times the current number of patients.

Clive Miller and the Haiti team

Cliveteam“From a profitability perspective, we know that establishing an optometry program in a developing country can be justified, from a financial perspective, by increased productivity,” says Dr. Luigi Bilotto, Director of Human Resources Development worldwide at the Brien Holden Vision Institute. “Now, to bring about sustainable eye care in Haiti, we need help from the vision care sector. “

Our goal is to welcome the first students of the new optometry program in October 2016. Work to develop a curriculum that suits this new program is already underway, and optometry care is now part of the national plan of health care in Haiti.

“The coalition, with the support of Essilor Canada, has pledged $ 1 million, but to move forward we need the additional $ 3 million,” said Clive Miller, chief of the management of Optometry Giving Sight. “Each significant financial contribution is accompanied by a special recognition which allows the name of the donor to be affixed on installations, which highlights the impact of a donation and our gratitude to our donors. “

Luis from El Salvador

Luis60% of people in El Salvador’s rural areas live below the poverty line and 85% have no access to visual health services.

For the children who suffer from untreated poor vision the effects can be devastating. Without vision services these children will forever be at a disadvantage.

Twelve year old Luis (pictured) from a village in El Salvador was struggling to see the chalkboard at school. “I could not see very well,” he relates. “It was hard for me to see the small letters on the chalkboard.”

FUDEM’s “Windows of Light” mobile eye screening program, which is funded with support from Optometry Giving Sight, visited Luis’ school. His life was transformed when he received an eye exam and glasses.

“Now that I have glasses I am doing really well in school.”

luisEyeTestFUDEM believes with timely intervention the future for the children of El Salvador will be filled with light and hope.

Your continued support enables us to provide support to more children like Luis. To make your donation, visit our donate page and become a monthly donor! Click here

First Mozambican optometrists

First Mozambican optometristsThe first class of degree-qualified optometrists have graduated from Universidade Lúrio in Nampula this month, becoming the very first optometrists in Mozambique.

Nine optometry students graduated alongside peers from other health sciences disciplines, in front of the first lady, Maria da Luz Guebuza, at what was only the second graduation ceremony in the university’s history.

In a promising step for long term eye health in Mozambique, four of the graduates have been employed at the university as members of the teaching faculty and in doing so, will become the first local members of staff.

One of those students is Joel de Melo Bambamba, who graduated top of the class. Joel, who is the eldest of five brothers, decided to study optometry because his grandfather was blind and his brother has serious vision impairment. Growing up, there was very limited access to eye care services. Although the course was challenging, Joel said he was very excited to graduate.

“I am very happy to have finished,” he said. “To have reached a dream of mine, and my parents.”

Joel was awarded the Jill and George Mertz Fellowship by the American Optometric Foundation and is currently studying for his Masters. He will return to Nampula next year to begin his faculty position.

James Loughman, who is a Professor of optometry at Dublin Insititute of Technology and one of the project leaders of the Mozambique Eyecare Project, said the graduation is a source of great pride and joy.

“To see these first optometrists emerge in a country with little in terms of eye health resources means that the combined efforts of so many people over the past five years have come into fruition,” he said.

“The first graduates will pave the way for the development and integration of a profession into the public health system in Mozambique. They are the future educators and leaders of eye health, not just in Mozambique, but potentially for Lusophone (Portugese-speaking) Africa.”

Prof Loughman, who is the Chair of Optometry Giving Sight’s National Committee in Ireland, also highlighted that research in Mozambique has revealed that spectacle coverage for uncorrected refractive error (URE) and presbyopia is virtually non-existent.

“As URE accounts for two thirds of the observed cases of visual impairment, the capacity of optometrists to fill this void is tremendous, and represents a real opportunity to transform the lives of those in need of eye health services,” he said.

Optometry Giving Sight is funding partner of the Mozambique Eye Project, which is a project of the Dublin Institute of Technology, the Brien Holden Vision Institute, Universidade Lúrio, Irish Aid & Higher Education Authority in Ireland, and the Univeristy of Ulster in Northern Ireland.

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Captions: Top – Graduates celebrate: L-R Sergio Uageito, Angela Efeso, Nordino Mboto, Cerena Figueiredo, Ramos Manuel Antonio, Janet Eugenia, Neusa Bucudade Namburete, Hermenegildo Tomo. Below: Joel de Melo Bambamba; Optometry graduates during the ceremony; the First Lady Maria da Luz Guebuza; Course co-ordinator Carlos Sanchez-Seco Villalba; Optometry students, faculty and others.

Nepalese children receive first ever eye care

nepalThe first-ever project to receive Optometry Giving Sight funding in Nepal has reported excellent progress after just six months.

The Sight Conservation of Children from Marginalised Communities of Nepal project, which is an initiative of the Nepalese Association of Optometrists (NAO), aims to provide comprehensive eye health services to children from poor communities in three districts of Nepal. It will also establish local stakeholder bodies to manage ongoing coordination of the project.

The first stage has seen two children’s ‘eye camps’ – one in the Dolakha district, and the other in the Kavrepalachowk district. In total, nearly 1500 children have been examined, with glasses and low vision devices provided to those in need. Referrals have also been made to a tertiary hospital in Kathmandu for four children who needed surgery. Although the eye camps were primarily targeting children, more than 320 local adults were also screened and treated.

It is the first time that most of these people have ever accessed any form of eye care, according to NAO President, Subodh Gnyawali.

‘Many people from rural parts of Nepal are not aware of eye health, and the services are not close, and so people do not often get services from qualified health professionals,’ he said.

For this reason, there was also a health promotion campaign held at each site, as well as the formation of two new coordination bodies to bring local stakeholders together. According to Mr Gnyawali, these are the most promising aspects of the project, in terms of its potential for long-term impact.

‘More than a thousand people from the communities have been made aware of eye health because of the campaigns,’ he said. ‘This is expected to increase the demand for eye health services, which will in turn help to lower the burden of eye problems in the community.

‘The new coordinating body in each district will help to continue identifying children who need eye care, and referring them to an appropriate facility.’

Despite some significant challenges – such as poor quality roads to access the camps, power shortages and a larger number of children than expected – the results so far are very positive.

For one young girl, 12 year old Susmita, the camps have proven to be a life changing experience. After being bullied at school and even thought to be a ‘curse baby’ by her family, she visited the Kavrepalanchowk eye camp with complaints of blurred vision in both her eyes.

‘Susmita was found to have iris coloboma, which extended up to the choroid,’ said Mr Gnyawali. ‘With refraction, we were able to restore good vision. We plan to provide her with prescription contact lenses during the follow up visit, which will help her eyes to look natural.’

With her new glasses, Susmita can now read well and copy text from the blackboard at school.

In time, Mr Gnyawali hopes that the project will extend to include more training of health personnel, and equipping of local health facilities to provide primary eye care.

Grant Assists Optometry School in Cameroon

Students of Optometry in Cameroon will be the direct beneficiaries of $20,000 from Canada – from the Alberta Government’s Community Initiatives Program International Development Grants. This program supports humanitarian projects in developing countries and countries in transition.

Optometry Giving Sight will match the grant with $20,000 from donations received from optometrists and their patients in Alberta. The funds will enable much needed equipment to be purchased for the School of Optometry in Yaounde, Cameroon. The equipment will be used to provide clinical training and assessment for the students.

GRANT ASSISTS OPTOMETRY SCHOOL IN CAMEROON“The lack of trained eye health professionals in rural areas of Cameroon has meant that millions of people are needlessly blind or visually impaired,” said Clive Miller, Global CEO with Optometry Giving Sight. “This tragic situation is being addressed through the training of optometrists and optical technicians at the country’s first School of Optometry. We thank the Alberta Government for their much needed support and look forward to the equipment being in place over the coming months.” The School of Optometry is an initiative of the Cameroon Ministry of Health, Cameroon Optician’s Society, Cameroon Ophthalmological Society and the Brien Holden Vision Institute Public Health Division. There are currently 16 students in their second year of study at the School. It is expected that by 2018, it will have produced more than 80 graduates.