South Africa : US Aid Supports ICEE Childhood Vision Program (article en anglais)

Two and a half million children in South Africa will have their eyes tested and treated in a major new project.  The project, to be conducted by the International Centre for Eyecare Education, has just received US$300,000 from the US Child Blindness and Eye Health Grants Fund.
 
“This project is a comprehensive plan to give sight to those in need and to strengthen South Africa’s capacity to detect and treat childhood blinding conditions”, said Professor Kovin Naidoo, Director of ICEE in Africa. 
 
A study of children aged 5-15 years in Durban, South Africa in 2003 found that only 20% of children needing spectacles had them.  Health services in South Africa are heavily skewed to the private sector and are focused on urban areas, and the majority of South African children have extremely limited access to any eyecare services.  For example of the 2212 optometrists registered in South Africa, only 40 (2%) of them are employed full-time in the Public Health Sector, which is used by 85% of the population.  This means that 38 million people, including 13 million children under 16, rely on only 40 optometrists. 
 
The ICEE program aims to bring eyecare to these children.  ICEE will implement the project in two of South Africa’s nine provinces, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal with a view to extending the project nationwide in the longer term. 
 
Firstly, the National School Eyecare Delivery Project will screen and treat all existing students (2,500,000 children) over a two year period.
 
“Currently where school health teams exist, each year they only reach 40% of primary school children between the ages of 5 – 7”, said Professor Naidoo.  “In our program all children in need of spectacles will be provided with them, and children will receive appropriate referrals to optometrists and ophthalmologists where required.  We anticipate that 36,000 spectacles will be dispensed.”
 
The Project will also develop capacity within government departments to deliver an ongoing sustainable eyecare delivery system to school students. 
 
ICEE will also undertake a Rapid Assessment of Schools for the Blind in South Africa.  In many cases, students in blind programs in South Africa are not actually blind.  In November 2005, ICEE Africa and SightSavers International (SSI) conducted a rapid assessment of 450 blind children in an SSI supported integrated schools programme in Malawi.  This study found that 45% of children do not need to be in the programme.  Only 3.8% of the children were found to be actually blind: 30% suffered from low vision but had no access at all to appropriate devices, 17.2% could have their vision restored to normal with spectacles, and 48.5% actually had normal vision.
 
Appropriate assessments, intervention and provision of devices could enable these children to move to mainstream education – both improving their educational and social opportunities and, critically, freeing up resources for those children who really are blind or severely visually impaired.
 
Thirdly ICEE will conduct Education and Advocacy Workshops for Optometrists, Department of Health Project Teams and Ministry of Education personnel. 
 
The key partners in the program will be the National Department of Health and the Provincial Departments of Health for Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.  Research data will provide a profile of Child Eye Health in South Africa and a resource to assist other Sub-Saharan countries plan and develop Child Eye Health programs.
 
“This program is a fantastic opportunity to improve the future for South African children just by giving them clear vision“, said Professor Naidoo.
 
About ICEE
 
Founded in 1998, the International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE) is non-profit, non-government organisation. ICEE’s mission is to eliminate avoidable blindness, particularly due to refractive error, or the need for spectacles.  ICEE’s strategy for achieving this focuses on:
Eyecare service delivery by providing free eye examinations and spectacles at an affordable cost for those in need.
Human Resource Development by training and equipping optometrists, Eyecare personnel and trainers throughout Africa, Australia and the Pacific.
Infrastructure by supporting development of Eye Clinics, Schools of Optometry and Centres of Excellence
 
ICEE runs several programs in Africa and South Africa including refraction (eye examinations and prescription of spectacles) training courses and mobile community optometrist programmes, and ICEE is the core supplier of affordable spectacles.  ICEE is also involved in research, both epidemiological, and works with Ministries of Health and other Blindness Prevention partners on the continent to strengthen the development of targeted, effective, sustainable eyecare delivery. 
 
 
Source : communiqué de presse