Category: Past News

60% 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.”

FUDEM 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

The 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.

—–
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.

The 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.

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.

“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.