National optical workshop established in Entebbe

Jan 22, 2019

The workshop has been established at the Entebbe Grade B hospital with an aim to address the problem of severe visual impairment.

HEALTH

Uganda has received the first state of art National Optical workshop to manufacture and offer spectacles at subsidized price to Ugandans.

The workshop has been established at the Entebbe Grade B hospital with an aim to address the problem of severe visual impairment.

First of its kind, the workshop has been set up with support from the Light for the world under the National Intervention on Uncorrected Refractive Errors (NIURE) project, being coordinated by the Ministry of Health for the last 11.

Speaking during the official handing over of the workshop to Government to enhance its sustainability, Dr Wolfgang Gindorfer, the project senior advisor of the Light for the world, observed that the project was aimed at ensuring that every person who needs optical correction can receive it both in rural and semi-rural areas.

he project staff posing for a photograph with their sponsorsThe project staff posing for a photograph with their sponsors

 


"Without appropriate optical correction, children are losing the chance to education yet adults are often deprived from productive working lives," he said.

He explained that during the 1st world congress on refractive errors, it was observed that patients with refractive error were not part of the international Blindness/low vision statistics yet it was assumed that everyone who needs spectacles is getting them yet world over detecting, refracting and correcting a refractive error is not given.

He attributed this to lack of trained personnel, adequate equipment for refraction, reflecting an imbalance of coverage of services especially in rural and semi-rural areas and a big gap in terms of accessibility of optical services.

 r olfgang indorfer the project enior dvisor of the ight for the world handing over the project to r tanley ubikire the ational eye coordinator inistry of ealth Dr Wolfgang Gindorfer, the project Senior Advisor of the Light for the world handing over the project to Dr. Stanley Bubikire, the National eye coordinator, Ministry of Health

 
"That is why in 2008, Light for the world and BHVI identified the gaps and developed a strategy plan which introduced the National Intervention on Uncorrected refractive errors to strengthen the Ugandan health systems." he said.

He said the project on top of manufacturing spectacles, has trained refractionists across the country and provided high quality refraction instruments to perform comprehensive refractions with confidence.

The Entebbe Grade B hospital superintendent, Dr Moses Muwanga said that Uganda's eye care system was a disaster but the project had helped to improve it to a greater level.

He said the project adopted the system of delivering spectacles using the buses across the country in that, a person can make an order and within the 24 hours, they will be delivered.

Dr Stanley Bubikire, the National eye coordinator, Ministry of health called for increased awareness of the workshop in order to increase its visibility for people to embrace the services offered.

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