Save 50,000 Pakistani children from blindness

CURRENT PROGRESS OF THE PROJECT

July, 2016 to September, 2016

Refractive errors and trachoma have been identified as priority conditions for control within Vision 2020: The right to Sight – a global imitative launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners to substantially reduce the burden of blindness and visual impairment by 2020. It has been advocated that screening for these conditions among children can be affectively performed by teachers.

There is growing body of evidence that many schoolchildren needing glasses do not get them because their refractive errors are not detected despite concerns that uncorrected refractive errors might not only hamper children physical cognitive and psychosocial development but also future employability and earning opportunities.  

In areas endemic for vitamin A deficiency and trachoma the WHO also recommends early detection of these disease in schools, and health education concerning their prevention and treatment. Globally an estimated 100 million children have active trachoma.  Almost 50% of Pakistan’s total population of around 154 million are children but nationally representative data on childhood eye disease are lacking. Pakistan has been classified by the WHO as a country with severe subclinical vitamin A deficiency in parts or whole of the country and studies conducted in different areas of Pakistan show that 32-43% children under 5 have deficient serum vitamin A levels. Trachoma is endemic in parts of the country.

A general lack of health care workers as health educators in Pakistan and many other developing countries supports the involvement of teacher in eye health education. However, there is a lack of literature on what they themselves know about common eye disease, and their detection and management.

Schools also offer an excellent opportunity for health education about prevention of eye trauma which is a regular even among children and a major cause of blindness.

Khyber Eye Foundation apart from visiting various schools to find out refractive errors in school going children also carried out community mobilization and eye awareness sessions at remote areas of Peshawar in which parents, children, school teachers and community leaders attended. During the session they all were briefed in detail regarding eye care, which included squint, cataract and general eye disease, and its prevention, pamphlets were also distributed amongst the children and parents to follow the instructions for prevention of blindness specially in children. Khyber Eye Foundation apart from refractive error also worked on squint patients and referred them to Hayatabad Medical Complex for operation.

Community Mobilization and Eye Awareness Session

 The Project Team of Khyber Eye Foundation continued its effort and ensured that maximum schools going children are screened for refractive error. The team also conducted eye awareness programme especially for the parents of children. During the period the team visited 21 schools and screened 892 students 165 teacher were trained to carry out vision of ach students out off 892 students 652 students were diagnosed as refractive error and were issued spectacles free of cost, worth of $ 728

 Story of a young boy who had refractive error and how his life changed after he was issued spectacles by the project team.

 Hamza lives in a small village of charsada  and studying in government primary school chanchano mandani.  He is the student of class 5^th . His father is a driver and earning meager amount as his monthly salary and supporting 10 of his family members and has no other source of income. The school eye health program team visited GPS CHANCHANO mandani and received the vision testing form from teacher in which the name of hamza was written. His teacher complained that Hamza cannot copy class work from the black board.  The school eye health team visited and checkup the vision of Hamza and found that his eye sight was weak that’s why he cannot copy the notes from the black board. His visual acuity was CF 2 meter in the right eye and 2 meter in the left eye. After refraction the team found that he has the myope of -11 in right eye and -10 in the left eye with -2 cylinder at 180 degree in both eyes. Hamza received his glasses from project team, after wearing his glasses his vision came 6/12 in both eyes. Now he could see the black board very clearly and became a very confident student of his class.

Khyber Eye Foundation is very thankful to his donors for donating and request to donate maximum so that the future of poor school going children is secured.

Raised                                    $ 4123  

Remaining                            $ 45377