Drive for Sight 2012
- Details
- Category: Say Eye Campaign
What is Drive For Sight?
In celebration of World Sight Day this year, the Brien Holden Vision Institute is embarking on a national road trip across South Africa, visiting some of our major eye care programs, screening school children in need, informing communities on eye health and launching a new eye care program called Giving Sight in Soweto.
Run concurrently with the World Sight Day celebrations, the Drive For Sight event aims to inform local communities across South Africa about the Institute’s aim to eliminate avoidable blindness and vision impairment through increasing access to eye care, and how they can be part of the program by seeking affordable eye care for their families and friends.
During this one-of-a-kind road trip, the Institute will visit its eye health projects in Durban, Umthatha and De Aar on October 7-9, respectively. In these underserved communities, the Institute will adopt a school and provide children with vision impairment with correctly prescribed glasses. The Institute will also be screening members of the community on the day and will be providing eye health education.
The road trip will culminate in the launch of the Giving Sight in Soweto program, which will coincide with World Sight Day on October 11. This exciting initiative is the result of collaboration between the Institute, Standard Chartered Bank, and the Gauteng Department of Health.
The Giving Sight in Soweto is a continuation of the Giving Sight to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), where, in July last year, the one-millionth patient received an eye exam. As with the KZN project, Giving Sight in Soweto aims to improve and strengthen comprehensive eye health services in Soweto by integrating them with the district health system over a period of three years.
This project will directly manage three of the priority areas of the South African National Eye Care Plan namely; refractive error, low vision and rehabilitation, and childhood blindness. The program will also identify and refer people who fall on the other priority areas; such as cataract, diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy and glaucoma.
Global Program Director for the Institute, Professor Kovin Naidoo, said, “The program in KZN began with an idea that if we could dramatically expand eye care access in KZN we would have a sustainable model that could be rolled out across Africa, wherever there is a health care system in operation. The KZN project was an unprecedented success; the province now has 127 eye clinics in public facilities and 55 sites have more equipment, primary health care nurses, ophthalmic nurses and optometrists have been employed or trained to take on the new demand for services. We’re confident we can repeat this achievement in Soweto,” he said.
Avoidable blindness is a huge problem in developing communities. At least 640 million people, mostly in the developing world, are blind or visually impaired simply because they do not have access to a basic eye examination and a pair of spectacles. In fact, according to World Health Organization estimates, 80% of the global blindness is avoidable, while 90% of blind people live in developing countries, suggesting a link between poor eye health and poverty.
In South Africa, the Institute works in collaboration with the provincial governments of the Eastern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and Gauteng to deliver refractive error services to disadvantaged communities.
Through the Institute’s partnerships with the Provincial Departments of Health, there are now over 200 eye health sites located in clinics and community hospitals where local people are able to access affordable eye health care. Here they can get prescriptions, advice, spectacles or referral where necessary. The number of these locations is growing rapidly. Supporting and strengthening the District Health System is one of the core aims of the Institute’s programs in South Africa.
If you would like to know more about our programs in the Africa region please click here.
Drive for Sight tour: 7-11 October 2012
FIRST STOP:
| Event location: | Will take place at Mansel Road Market in Central Durban, South Africa | |
| Date: | 07 October 2012. 09h00 until 15h00 | |
| Target population: | Informal traders, local residents living near the market, which is a significantly disadvantaged and deprived area and is representative of our audience-focus. | |
| Activities: | Screening for eye health, health education, promotion and awareness; and speeches by different partners |
SECOND STOP:
| Event location: | Will take place in Umthatha near Nelson Mandela Hospital, South Africa | |
| Date: | 08 October 2012. 07h30 until 16h00 | |
| Target population: | Local community, school children etc | |
| Activities: |
The Foundation will adopt a local school where a screening and assessment will be conducted by a local team two weeks before our event. Breakfast with school children and health education session. Screening for eye health, health education, promotion and awareness; and speeches by different partners. All students who require glasses will get their glasses during the main event, presented by the representatives of all partner organisations and the Member of Executive Council (MEC) for Health. |
THIRD STOP:
| Event location: | Will take place in De Aar, Northern Cape, South Africa | |
| Date: | 09 October 2012. 08h00 until 16h00 | |
| Target population: | Local community, school children, etc. | |
| Activities: | The Foundation will adopt a local school where a screening and assessment will be conducted by a local team two weeks before our event. Screenings for eye health, health education, promotion and awareness. All students who require glasses will get their glasses during the main event. Lunch combined with eye health education session with school children. The handover of glasses will be done by the representatives of all partner organisations and the MEC for Health The event will showcase the Giving Sight to Northern Cape Project that we are running in partnership with South African Red Cross Air Mercy Mission and the Department of Health |
FOURTH STOP:
| Event location: | Will take place in Soweto, Gauteng, South Africa | |
| Date: | 11 October 2012. 07h30 until 16h00 | |
| Target population: | Local community, school children, etc. | |
| Activities: | The Foundation will adopt a local school where a screening and assessment will be conducted by a local team two weeks before our event. All students who require glasses will get their glasses during the main event. Breakfast and health education session with school children. Screenings for eye health, health education, promotion and awareness; and speeches by different partners. All students who require glasses will get their glasses during the main event. The handover of glasses will be done by the representatives of all partner organisations and the MEC for Health. Launch of the Giving Sight in Soweto Project. Formal speeches: Professor Kovin Naidoo. Walkabout to different sites that have been developed or equipped by the project |
