New sight for blind and vision-impaired in South Africa
Refractive error is a key factor leading to preventable blindness.
About the project
Thousands of blind and visually-impaired people in South Africa will be able to see again because of our project with partners International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE).
Refractive error is the major cause of impaired vision in South Africa – and a key factor leading to preventable blindness. Here, around 7.5million people depend on public health facilities. But many live in areas where eye care services are limited.
People suffer conditions ranging from sight-deterioration through ageing, short and long-sightedness and astigmatism, through to cataract and glaucoma.
Our project partners the International Centre for Eyecare Education are working to detect, diagnose and manage these and other ocular conditions to enable thousands of people to see clearly again.
By the end of the project we aim to provide:
- Eye examinations, spectacles or referrals for 1 million South Africans without access to eye care
- Refractive error programmes for the district health system, to give ongoing care to millions more people – and a model for wider South Africa and other African countries
- Comprehensive eye care services to correct refractive errors
- Primary eye care services at all 600 primary health clinics in the province
- Refraction services at 70 community health centres
- Training for local staff and optometrists
- Close-working with the Government to forge sustainable foundations.
Other projects in South Africa
“Giving Sight in South Africa is a unique project…more than a million people will be examined; sight-threatening conditions detected and treated, hundreds of thousands restored to full and useful vision.”Professor Brien Holden, CEO, ICEE
- Period
- 2007 - 2010
- Partner
- International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE)