Our projects
Continuing education of ophthalmic surgeons
In Kenya’s National Eye Health Strategic Plan Year 2020-2025, it is estimated that 15.5% of the population will require qualified eye health services. With a population of over 50 million, that is a very high number.
The reason is that Africa has a serious shortage of ophthalmologists, only 2 ophthalmologists per 1 million inhabitants. The UN set the goal for Vision 2020 that the number of cataract operations should be 3,000 per million inhabitants. Kenya today stands at 800.
There is still a skewed distribution of access to eye health services. 80% of Kenyan ophthalmologists practice in Nairobi, while the districts have few. It is in those districts the need is greatest.
Right to Sight has therefore worked with the teaching and further education of ophthalmologists and other eye health personnel in combating needless blindness in Kenya since 2011, and has supported the education of up to 50 new eye surgeons in the SICS surgical technique, which is used to operate on cataracts, an operation that restores sight in 10 minutes, at a price of 23 euro!
For 4 years, we have supported the Kwale Eye Centre, a clinic run by a highly qualified, dedicated and renowned ophthalmologist, Dr Helen Roberts. She trains Ophthamic Clinical Officers (OCOs), a separate education introduced in the 1980s to remedy the critical shortage of ophthalmologists in the country.
Dr. Robert’s approach is to provide OCOs with broad training. It is OCOs who work in the countryside (often in their home districts), where the need is greatest, and their work is very important in reducing needless blindness among the most vulnerable.
The candidates are selected in collaboration with the Kenya Medical Training Center and the Jomo Kenyatta University Training Centre. Ophthalmologists from the University of Nairobi, who need surgical practice and guidance, also visit the clinic for shorter and longer periods.
Dr. Roberts has a very effective teaching plan with bedside teaching combined with training in the «wet lab» (teaching on a large screen and surgery training on animal eyes).
Child Blindness
Since 2019, we have operated successfully on several hundred children.
Childhood blindness is a major problem in Kenya, and is increasing because the country has such a large population under the age of 15. Kenya has not yet introduced national measures to detect and treat eye disorders in children, and eye health services are also limited, especially in rural areas where the population lives scattered and in poverty.
Childhood blindness cause high mortality rates for children under the age of five, and a blind child has few chances to get an education and contribute to society.
The cause of childhood blindness and visual impairment is congenital cataracts, various injuries to the eyes, and other eye diseases that are not treated. Right to Sight, in collaboration with Kwale Eye Center in the Mombasa district, has a project to train midwives and nurses in screening the eyes of newborns and young children to detect eye disorders. It is not routine at maternity clinics and health centres.
We equip the healthcare personnel with screening instruments, gather them in groups to receive training, and produce information material for them to hand out. Children who need treatment or surgery get it at the clinic. Children with special needs receive glasses and offers for further follow-up.
During the treatment of the children, teaching is always taking place to ensure that competence is transferred to new colleagues. This transfer of knowledge is central to ensuring sustainable eye health services.
The project also includes teaching mothers how to look for signs that their children may have eye disorders. Information and training is given to women during maternity leave, at check-ups for young children and in connection with outreach activities.
25,000 children are born in the Mombasa district each year, 90% in hospital. In order to find and examine children who are not born in hospitals, Right to Sight finances two outreach camps a month with its own coordinator out in the field.
The project is supported by the AKO Foundation, and was started in 2019. The project is successful, and encouraged by local authorities and hospitals. We now see that the number of children referred from hospitals and health centers has risen significantly.
Outreach
Thousands have been helped through our outreach work. Outreach is important in order to reach those who need help. In rural Kenya, people live scattered over great distances. Many people do not know that they can receive treatment for eye disorders, and superstitions and misconceptions create fear. At outreach camps, everyone gets their eyesight checked, gets treatment for minor ailments, and offered advanced treatment at the clinic if they need it. The outreach workers also provide information and guidance to those who show up, answering questions such as what are the signs of eye disorders and what to do if their vision starts to deteriorate. This is important preventive work.
Our collaborating hospital, Kwale Eye Centre, is carrying out the outreach work. The clinic covers a population of around one million, a large proportion of whom live in poverty. Right to Sight supports six outreach activities a month, two of which are earmarked for finding children. In addition, there are two outreaches per month through the AKO project.
How we work:
- Conduct weekly outreach camps at various locations
- Treat simpler eye conditions on site, while people in need of more advanced treatment are offered transport to the clinic.
- Carry out information work about eye health, what are the signs of eye disorders and when you need to seek help.
- Create trust in patients, reduce fear and correct misconceptions.
The Friends’ Association
Right to Sights Friends’ Association (Venneforeningen) was formed in 2017 as a supplement to Right to Sights operations in Kenya. We provide financial support for upper secondary education for visually impaired and disadvantaged young people to give them a better starting point in life.
Many children in Africa become blind in early childhood from cataracts and other treatable diseases. If they don’t get help early, the visual impairment will become permanent. In Kenya, where Right to Sight works, there are no public measures that can ensure that children with visual impairments go to school after they have finished basic education. They are dependent on parents or family members who can pay for them.
Many of the children are orphans, have sick parents, or come from broken and dysfunctional families. By helping with further education, we can give them the opportunity for a better life, where they can support themselves and contribute to society.
The Friends’ Association has given 30 students upper secondary education.
In total, the Friends’ Association has given support to 30 young people. Most pupils go to boarding schools with adapted teaching for the blind and partially blind. Secondary school in Kenya is four years.
Two students have taken a one-year practical education. One has taken an education in agriculture, the other one in sewing. Both are finished and able to support themselves. In order to be accepted as a student at a secondary school, everyone in the final stage of primary school is tested.
Functionally healthy students must have at least 250 points to be admitted to upper secondary school, while our students only need 200 points. If you score a minimum of 100 points, you can become a student at a more practical school. This education is also shorter.
The Friends’ Association has a local part-time employee whose main job is to follow up the students at the various schools. She pays each of them one visit per term, and is the link between the student, the school and the Friends’ Association. The income of the association has consisted of gifts from individuals, companies and organizations such as Lions clubs and the Norwegian Women’s Sanitary Association. The funds have been used for school fees, materials and, for some students, uniforms and personal equipment. In addition, travel expenses are also covered in cases where the schools are far away from a student’s home.