"I meet people who have been blind for years from cataracts, even though sight could have been restored with a simple cataract surgery. Lack of awareness has shown up as a persistent barrier. Many people do not know services are available." Dr. A, an ophthalmologist, working in Karamoja said as justification for establishing a youth cataract awareness initiative, to spread accurate information about cataract surgeries. We join Dr. A in scaling up this initiative to wider Greater Northern Uganda.
"The problem is not that cataract surgery is not available, it is; but many people do not know that the services are available. This has been revealed in several eye health surveys done in Karamoja, where lack of awareness has shown up as a persistent barrier." From cursory observations, as we do fieldwork, the case of Karamoja as described by Dr. A, is applicable to Teso, Acholi, Lango & Bukedi. And we find that costs for post surgery care are a challenge for underserved indigent communities.
Working closely with ophthalmologists & with guidance from Dr. A, train Cataract Participatory Action Research Change Agents, who are equipped with behavioral change communication & content creation skills. Through project trained change agents, synergistically work with local government public health authorities, to conduct robust information dissemination in person and online "to reach more people before avoidable blindness kills their independence." Gift the poor reading glasses & eye drops.
"According to the Ugandan Ministry of Health, 57% of blindness cases in the country are due to cataracts, a condition that can be treated." It is the aspiration of CPAR Uganda that this project will contribute towards reducing the percentage of persons in Uganda who go blind when afflicted with cataracts. Direct beneficiaries will have eyesight & worth restored. As functional humans they will be able to lead a better quality of life for them and their households, unimpeded by visual impairment.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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