EU programme to prevent blindness in the Caribbean

A five-year EU-funded programme is helping to prevent blindness in some of the poorer countries of the Caribbean region; Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and St. Lucia. It is being coordinated by the United Kingdom based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Sightsavers International, with its partners in the Caribbean.

The multi-faceted project is funding a range of measures from the training of optometrists to the manufacturing of spectacles. On average, Caribbean nations have just one optometrist to 100,000 compared to one to every 10,000 in the United Kingdom. Seventy-four per cent of the programme’s €5,429,856 budget is from EU funds. Underway since January 2010, the programme is giving a boost to Vision 2020, the global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020.

The NGO’s partners on the spot are the Caribbean Council for the Blind, Société Haїtienne d’Aide aux Aveugles[1], St. Lucia Blind Welfare Association, Jamaica’s Society for the Blind and Eye Care Guyana. The most common causes of blindness in the Caribbean are untreated cataracts,glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and uncorrected refractive errors. According to Sightsavers, one of the ways the programme will reduce the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment amongst rural and poor populations in the Caribbean is partly through training professionals in early detection.

“One of the aims of the programme is to reduce the cost of spectacles and provide equipment and training to personnel within the government sector. We want the programme to develop in a way that when it finishes, the government can carry it forward”,explains Charles Vandyke of Eye Care Guyana, speaking in his office in Georgetown, Guyana.

Training professionals

In total, 1,240 primary health care workers and 100 eye care professionals will receive training. Facilities at seven health institutions are to be improved and 13 specialised vision centres set up within district or community health facilities, as well as five spectacle laboratories. The professionals will be trained at the University of Guyana which began offering a four-year BSc degree course in optometry ‑ the only one in the Caribbean – in 2010. The EU programme is providing some of the funding for course lecturers and scholarships for students.

Research is another part of the programme. A Rapid Assessments of Avoidable Blindness (RAABs) will explore the incidence of blindness in each of the countries covered by the project. Widespread media campaigns in each of the countries will also inform the public about eye health.

To find out more: www.sightsavers.org

Debra Percival

[1]Haitian Society for Help for the Blind