Visually impaired children to benefit from USD 6.25m

Visually impaired children to benefit from USD 6.25m ‘Seeing is Believing Child Eye Health’ East Africa Project

01st March 2013 – Kampala, Uganda; Standard Chartered Bank, together with seven international NGOs, the Ministry of Health and Education and institutions of higher learning and research in Uganda has today launched the Child Eye Health Programme at Hotel Africana.

The grand event which was presided over by the State Minister for Health, Hon. Sarah Opendi was attended by VIPs, eye care practitioners, corporate companies, associations, school going children, people with disabilities among others.  This is the biggest single investment that Standard Chartered has invested in the communities in its history.

The launch officially flags off the four (4) year Seeing is Believing Child Eye Health programme in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. This project which is funded by Standard Chartered Bank will be implemented by two consortia partners in eye health and education led by Brien Holden Vision Institute and the Chistoffel Blinded Mission (CBM).

The primary aim of the project is to reduce the percentage of avoidable blindness and visual impairment among children by promoting child eye health in the 3 East African countries.

Over the next four years, the programme will directly benefit children between the ages of 0-to-15-years-old, and will indirectly benefit children through changes in national policies and improved coordination of child eye health delivery.

The Minister of State for Health, Hon Sarah Opendi, who presided over the function thanked Standard Chartered Bank for its support of government efforts at service delivery.  She said

“As the Ministry of Health, we are hereby assuring you of our full commitment to provide all the assistance in our means to ensure that this program succeeds and is sustainable through the government structures, even after its expiry after the 4 years it will run.  I would like to use this opportunity to call upon other organizations to emulate the example Standard Chartered has set by supporting the governments to offer service delivery. 

This particular initiative fits in very well with the true spirit of East Africa as we map out the way forward in integration and it could pose a model to our political structures in the way a private entity and business like Standard Chartered can coordinate a project of this nature across borders.” said Hon Opendi.

“The programme which targets children aged 0 to 15 years, takes a holistic view of child eye health looking at the whole child’s needs: from building awareness and education of child eye health among families and communities; building the referral networks to identify and correctly diagnose children for problems (including within schools); to ensuring the clinical infrastructure and human resources are in place to treat children with blindness and visual impairment; and ensuring that children who cannot be medically or surgically treated are given support and educational opportunities to enable them unleash their full potential.  ,” explained Mr. Herbert Zake, Standard Chartered Bank’s Head of Corporate Affairs.

The uniqueness of this programme is based on the fact that two partner consortia, who for years have worked more independently, will work together to address the holistic needs of children.  Both consortia have distinct but complementary objectives.

Importantly, Brien Holden Vision Institute, will focus on developing an African model for school eye health, building networks to identify and correct child eye health problems as early as possible and will support the education of blind children.

The other consortium, led by Christian Blind Mission (CBM), will mainly focus on strengthening the health system to enhance the existing clinical capacity to deliver child eye care at all levels, (human resources, awareness creation, equipment, consumables) and will work on strengthening referral systems from community to tertiary level.

While addressing the guests, the Country Director, Sightsavers, Mr. Johnson Ngorok said;
“The goal of the project is to increase access to child eye health services by 30% over and above the current level of service provision. Implementation will be carried out by the four tertiary eye centers that we have i.e. Mulago NRH, Mengo Hospital, Ruharo eye center and St. Benedictine Eye Hospital in Tororo and six Regional Referral Hospitals i.e. Jinja, Soroti, Lira, Gulu, Arua and Fort Portal.

The Six Regional Referral Hospitals were chosen because of the presence of an ophthalmologist. As for the geographical coverage the project will reach 9 of the 14 ministry of health regions”. He concluded.

The Seeing is Believing Child Eye Health project will use the existing Ministry of Health infrastructures and Human resources for its implementation.

“Blindness and visual impairment have serious effects on the educational and employment opportunities of children,” said Sub-Regional Manager (Eastern Africa) Brien Holden Vision Institute Ms. Naome Nsubuga. “Less than 10% of blind children attend school, which is a worrying statistic,” she said.  According to Nsubuga, there is an estimated 8,500 to 10,000 children with severe visual impairment and another 4.5m (10%) suffering from refractive error and other eye ailments in the whole of the East Africa region.

“That is why this project is such an important one,” she said. “This ‘one-programme, two-projects approach’ means that all partners involved can play to their strengths to meet the whole needs of the child”.

According to the Global Programs Director of the Brien Holden Vision Institute, the CEO of the African Vision Research Institute and the Chair of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), Professor Kovin Naidoo; “There are 1.4 million blind children in the world, the impact of blindness and visual impairment on children therefore is far greater than for adults, as children have their whole lives before them.

“In terms of the impact on reducing years lived with disability, curing a child of blindness is, on average, equivalent to curing 10 adults with cataract surgeries,” says the Professor.

The programme will also work hand in hand with ministries of health and education in the three countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to embed the project’s activities in national government structures with the aim of ensuring long-term sustainability of the project.

Project statistics:
·    USD 6.25 million invested over 4 years (roughly equal across each country)
·    4 million children will directly benefit through screening, treatment for basic eye problems, eye surgeries, and eye glasses.
o    3 million through the Brien Holden Vision Institute Consortium
o    1 million through Christian Blind Mission Consortium
·    5,908 children to receive surgeries
·    757 children referred for rehabilitation and education
·    7 million children directly benefited through health education
·    82 eye care clinics enhanced and established in hospitals across the region
·    8,840 people trained in child eye care through the programme (including paediatric ophthalmologists, Low Vision specialists, optometrists, ophthalmological nurses, maternal child health workers, community workers and school teachers)
·    national child eye health coordination systems are enhanced
·    conducive changes for inclusion of child eye health in existing health and education systems, training programs, guidelines and ultimately policies, are advocated for
·    Regional sharing of resources, training facilities and coordination strengthened

·    The Brien Holden Vision Institute consortium includes; the Fred Hollows Foundation, Light for The World, Operation Eyesight Universal, Perkins International, the African Vision Institute, the Uganda Optometric Association, the Tanzania Optometric Association and the Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology.

·    The CBM led consortium consists of Sightsavers which will lead on the CBM led consortia activities in Uganda, the Eastern Africa College of Ophthalmologists, Mulago National Referral Hospital –Ministry of Health, Uganda among others.