Manual success fuels translation into Portuguese

With more than 200 million native speakers, Portuguese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, stretching from Africa to South America, Europe to Australia and the Caribbean.

To further its mission in eradicating vision impairment among the Lusophone population, the Brien Holden Vision Institute Foundation are proud to introduce the Portuguese translation of the Refraction Manual alongside the already established English and Spanish versions. The translation of the Refraction Manual into Portuguese was generously funded by Light for the World.

In April, the Portuguese Refraction Manual was launched in Mozambique and showcased at the 9th International Congress of Optometry and Vision Sciences in Portugal, as part of the Foundation global strategy which offers the international eye care industry awareness and accessibility to the newly translated resource.

The Refraction Manual is a contemporary resource which gives community and health care workers the knowledge and skills necessary to perform accurate refraction examinations and prescribe appropriate spectacles. The Foundation released the English version of the Refraction Manual in 2009 and its success has fuelled translation into other languages.

“The Portuguese Refraction Manual is a user-friendly, interactive resource for eye care,” says Luigi Bilotto, Director Global Human Resource Development. “It assumes no previous knowledge of eye care or refraction and is simplified for translation into other languages, which means people from all backgrounds will find this useful. The manual, an excellent resource entirely free of charge, can be downloaded from the Brien Holden Vision Institute website.

“Making refraction accessible worldwide is a long term commitment of the Foundation.Training the necessary human resources to provide refractive care locally is essential to achieving our objective. This resource brings us one step closer to our goal,” said Mr Bilotto.

The manual package contains 30 subject units, including a teacher manual and reference resources equipped with step-by-step instructions, detailed flow charts and power point presentations. The use of didactic photography helps to illustrate a comprehensive and practical learning experience alongside discovery activities, worksheets, simulations and case studies. Interactive role-play activities and summary exercises are designed for skills development and refraction examination practice.

Professor Brien Holden, CEO, Brien Holden Vision Institute showed his support for the third translation of the Refraction Manual. “We know there is a massive need for increasing human resources to eliminate blindness and impaired vision due to uncorrected refractive error. It is our job to do everything in our power to help build capacity and resources by enabling global quality refraction education and training,” said Professor Holden.