Grantee News & Materials
The Child Sight Foundation, Expert Group Workshop on Childhood Cataract in Asia
The Child Sight Foundation, an A2Z Child Blindness Program Cycle III grantee, co-organized an “Expert Group Workshop on Childhood Cataract in Asia” August 1-4, 2011 in Bangladesh. Other organizers included the Asian Institute of Disability and Development (AIDD) and the University of South Asia, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Financial support from Foundation Dark and Light, Netherlands. 21 experts and observers from seven countries in Asia (Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and Vietnam) attended with the primary goal of developing a standard manual for the detection and management of childhood cataract in Asian countries. The workshop report is available here. More information on the Child Sight Foundation is available here http://www.childsight-foundation.org/.
A2Z Child Blindness Program Final Partners Meeting in Washington, DC - July 25-26, 2011
On July 25, 2011, 63 representatives from 39 eye care, health, and education organizations, as well as a representative from USAID, met in Washington, DC to participate in the A2Z Child Blindness Program Final Partners Meeting. 23 of the participants traveled from 17 countries to attend the meeting, with the remaining coming from across the United States. The goal of the two-day meeting was to convene stakeholders of the A2Z Child Blindness Program to review preliminary results from the six Cycle VI Operations Research grants. Participants also discussed regional and clinical trends in pediatric eye care, education and rehabilitation approaches and experiences, innovative ways to design programs and research in child self-refraction. Materials from the meeting to come.
A2Z Child Blindness Grantee KCCO Featured in the Vision2020 August Newsletter and the Vision2020 Website!
An A2Z Child Blindness Grantee and recognized regional training center, The Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO – www.kcco.net) located in Moshi, Tanzania, has recently been highlighted by Vision2020 in both their August 2011 newsletter and on their website. KCCO’s Knowledge Translation for Eye Care Course, held in June 2011 and supported by KCCO’s A2Z Operations Research grant, was a unique training event aimed at ultimately improving health and vision policy in Africa by strengthening the connections between evidence-based research and policymaking. The course targeted researchers from various countries and instructed them in several practical areas, such as how to identify a policy problem, how to determine the audience, how to identify a proposed intervention, how to draft a policy brief, and how to design an information dissemination strategy. Upon completion of the course participants had an increased capacity to write informed and persuasive policy briefs and make evidence-informed decisions.
Vision2020 is an international collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), and many other NGOs and stakeholders in the fight against preventable blindness.
Click here for the link to the Vision2020 feature on KCCO. http://www.vision2020.org/main.cfm?type=NI&ObjectId=4476
A2Z Child Blindness Grantee, VisionSpring, featured on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric
The CBS Evening News team recently traveled to Rajasthan to learn more about A2Z Child Blindness Grantee, VisionSpring. This report tells the moving story of a woman named Ranju Sharma, a VisionSpring "Vision Entrepreneur" who became so well respected that she was the first woman ever nominated to run for village chief.
The goal of VisionSpring is to train and equip local community members as ‘Vision Entrepreneurs’. Once trained, VEs launch their own micro-franchises, selling affordable reading glasses and other eye care products at the village level.
Click here to watch the full video. To learn more about the work of VisionSpring, visit: http://www.visionspring.org/home/home.php
New Child Blindness Case Studies Now Available
Journal Articles from A2Z Child Blindness Grantee, Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO), featured in PLoS Medicine
The Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO) and its partners have been working to build management capacity to achieve VISION 2020—a global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness—in Tanzania since 2001. The following articles, published in PLoS Medicine in December 2009, share lessons learned by KCCO and its partner organizations in their work to eliminate avoidable blindness through programmes, training, and research focusing on the delivery of sustainable and replicable community ophthalmology services.
Click links below to access the full articles:
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Blindness in Childhood in Developing Countries: Time for a Reassessment? |
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The Need for Management Capacity to Achieve VISION 2020 in Sub-Saharan Africa |
A2Z Child Blindness Program Partners meet in Washington, DC to share experiences and explore emerging priorities
On November 2, 2009, 33 representatives from 15 eye care, health, and education organizations, as well as advisors from USAID, met in Washington, DC to participate in the A2Z Child Blindness Program Partners Meeting. The goal of the two-day meeting was to convene stakeholders of the A2Z Child Blindness Program to review project experiences, achievements and challenges. Participants also discussed emerging priorities in pediatric eye care service delivery and how the A2Z Child Blindness Program could respond to these needs. Click here to view meeting report, presentations, and materials.
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2009 Child Blindness Partners Meeting Report |
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A2Z Child Blindness Grantee Feature: The IRC Border Eye Program |
Community-based Eye Care: Haiti
A2Z documentary video
Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO) coordinates second childhood cataract stakeholders meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
On June 8, 2009, KCCO convened a second stakeholders meeting, entitled ‘Recognition, referral, and surgical intervention of children with severe visual impairment and blindness due to cataract: Review of evidence.’ The meeting brought together multiple partners working across Tanzania including Christian Blind Mission; Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania; Tanzania Society for the Blind; and, the Ministry of Health. Participants reviewed the progress of recent interventions and discussed strategies for improving case detection, referrals, treatment and follow-up care.
KCCO presented the following presentations at the meeting:
VisionSpring featured in Harvard Business Review ‘Toolkit’: Making Better Investments at the Base of the Pyramid, By: Ted London
VisionSpring’s work in Andhra Pradesh, India is highlighted in the May 2009 Harvard Business Review feature which focuses on methods for measuring the impact of ‘base of the pyramid’ approaches. An excerpt is available here: http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/05/making-better-investments-at-the-base-of-the-pyramid/ar/1 (Full article requires subscription)
‘A2Z – The USAID Micronutrient and Child Blindness Project: Fostering Innovative Approaches to Saving Sight’
On April 18, 2009, Roshelle Payes, A2Z Child Blindness Program Manager, participated in the panel presentation ‘Innovative Approaches to Overwhelming Need’ at Unite for Sight’s 5th Global Health & Innovation Summit at Yale University. Download the presentation here.
USAID Blindness Program Assists One Million Children in 23 Countries
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In the past year, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Child Blindness Program assisted over one million people through eye health education, comprehensive vision screening, refractive error correction, sight-restoring surgery, and education for blind children. Read full press release: http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2009/pr090304r.html
Child Blindness Program Receives Recognition Plaque
In February 2009, FUDEM inaugurated its second satellite eye care clinic in Soyapango, El Salvador. An Organization Development grant supported the purchase of essential equipment for one of the clinic’s exam rooms. As part of the opening ceremony, FUDEM awarded a recognition plaque to AED for its contribution in expanding pediatric services.
Publication: The USAID Child Blindness Program: Fostering Development through the Prevention and Treatment of Blinding Eye Disease
An overview of USAID’s activities in addressing avoidable blindness.
Download the publication here.
Publication: Looking to the Future with Hope
Stories from past child blindness activities. Download the publication here.
To post your organization’s child eye care news items or materials here, please email childblindness@fhi360.org
