When I travel to our countries of work and to the target villages, I see that eye health is about far more than sight. I have learnt that eye health is about children being able to learn, play at school and practice hygiene. It is about adults being able to work and run businesses, access clean water, herd animals, grow crops and care for children. It is about seniors who can meet their friends, travel and chase after their grandchildren. Eye health is about reaching everyone in a community, addressing all the avoidable vision loss issues and empowering the community to take care of their eye health themselves. Often, this is the impact of partnerships between organizations and governments, hospitals and communities with a shared vision to improve quality of life. Actually, health and partnerships are so important that they have been identified in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) as necessary for a peaceful and prosperous world.  

This June, I am attending the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) global event, 2030 IN SIGHT LIVE in Mexico. (See above for a photo of my eye health peers and I at last year’s event.) As an elected IAPB board member and someone who has been leading health and eye health care programmes for more than 35 years, I will join hands with fellow experts and organizations in the eye health sector to apply our collective knowledge to address:   

1. What needs to be done to transform the vision of universal eye care into a global reality by 2030? 

2. What ground-breaking approaches will accelerate action and transform eye health? 

3. What steps can we take to embed conscious, inclusive and sustainable best practices across the eye health sector? 

4. What can we do to harness our strengths and diverse skills to increase momentum together to empower change? 

5. To address diverse needs and shape the future of eye health, how can we meet the rising demand and changing landscapes with strategic sustainable solutions? 

My experience has shown me that a key part of the answer to all these questions lies in the power of partnerships. By working together, we can build sustainable strategies that connect international agencies, national governments, hospitals, and health care workers, and extend right down into the communities and each person there.   

Partnerships at the strategic, implementational and program levels will ensure that multiple players can focus on their strengths – from sharing eye health care data with international agencies that set global goals, to working with national governments to include eye health in health care and education policies, to supporting hospitals and training health care workers who treat vision issues, to empowering communities to identify and address vision problems for everyone who lives there. Through partnerships, we stand together so we have more visibility. We have more influence and more funding. We have more technical expertise, and we have more community connections.  

Over more than 60 years, Operation Eyesight has developed a sustainable model of community empowerment. I take great pride in our flagship model, which is not only sustainable but also scalable. This model serves as evidence to the successful implementation of the World Health Organization’s five recommendations outlined in its World Report on Vision 2019: making eye care a part of universal health care, integrating people-centred eye care into health systems, promoting high-quality implementation and health systems research that compliments evidence for effective eye health care interventions, monitoring trends and evaluating progress for effective eye care interventions, and raising awareness, engaging and empowering people and communities about eye care needs. I attribute the success of this model to our dedicated partners and the communities we serve. 

When we partner with others, we become the bridge between health care services and communities. While many organizations work down to the hospital level, we start with the hospital and work down to the community level where we reach all those individuals who are in need of eye care. With the hospital, we identify a service area and build a local vision centre. Next, we train local community health care workers in the community. In our nine countries of work, our network of more than 2,500 community health care workers conduct door-to-door surveys, knocking on doors and identifying people with vision challenges. These workers then refer people to the vision centre for eye exams and prescription eyeglasses or treatment for eye diseases. Those with issues that require services beyond the vision centre, such as cataract, are referred to the local hospital for surgery. Once all avoidable vision loss cases are addressed, the community is declared avoidable blindness-free. The community can then sustain this as they now have ownership of their own eye health care.  

Time and time again we have seen this model work. We are publishing research on the results, investing in resources to replicate it, and harnessing partnerships to bring this model to new communities and new countries of work.  

In Mexico City, I plan to reconnect with current partners and meet new partners. I will learn from them about their perspectives on the five key questions IAPB is asking and share my views with them. Additionally, I will discuss what more Operation Eyesight can do to further strengthen our partnerships and chart a future course that allows us to collectively reach out to many more individuals and communities. I look forward to seeing so many global community members in Mexico City and to working together to answer the five IAPB questions. I believe that together, we have the power to transform eye health care – For All The World To See.    

Join our global community, partner with us and we will transform more lives together.

The post The Power of Partnerships: Seeing is Believing by Kashinath Bhoosnurmath appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

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This week, representatives from Operation Eyesight (including yours truly) are headed to Durban, South Africa for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness’s 10^th General Assembly. Our team will join 1,600 other delegates to discuss public health issues related to blindness and visual impairment. We submitted seven abstracts to the program committee, and we’re delighted to report that all seven were accepted and will be presented at the Assembly

Our poster presentations will include our child eye health project in Kenya, cataract surgery coverage in Ghana, sustainable vision centres in India and our successful program models. Dr. Boateng Wiafe, our Director of Quality and Advocacy, will also deliver a presentation on the national blindness and visual impairment study we spearheaded in Ghana.

We’re excited for the opportunity to share with our international colleagues some of the things we’ve been able to learn and achieve, thanks to our donors’ support. We hope to share more with you, too. Be sure to “Like” Operation Eyesight on Facebook and follow us on Twitter so you can see photos and updates from the Assembly.

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That confidence was confirmed this week at the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)’s Ninth General Assembly in Hyderabad, India.

From Monday to Thursday, we had multiple opportunities to share our vision with doctors, scientists and experts in eye care from around the world. Operation Eyesight’s focus on quality and sustainability is admired by many and shared by a growing segment of the international eye care community.

IAPB, based in London, England, is at the centre of all worldwide efforts to bring reliable eye care to everyone, including the poorest. At this event “everyone who is anyone” in the eye care world was there, with over 15,000 delegates from 87 countries.

It was convenient that this year’s event was in Hyderabad, because that’s also the location of Operation Eyesight’s India office. Our staff made nine presentations on various topics and exhibited static scientific displays (posters) that explain aspects of our work and approach.

As well, many of our programs partners from India and Africa were there, and some made their own presentations and exhibited their own scientific displays.

We also had a large and well-situated display booth that drew around 300 visitors a day, and proved to be the site of many important conversations and meetings.

One of the things that makes these general assemblies so important is that they are rare and therefore keenly anticipated. Occurring only once every four years, they are the  Olympics of eye care – you can be sure that everyone who attends is really paying attention. For Operation Eyesight, our staff learned a great deal and we, in turn, were able to showcase our own innovations to the experts of the world.

Speaking of innovations, the conference organizers offered something very cool. During the coffee and lunch breaks throughout the conference, they ran a Dialogue in the Dark. This dining format occured in complete darkness with visually impaired waiters serving the refreshments. Dialogue in the Dark is rated by Forbes International as among the top 25 unusual “dining” experiences that one must try once in their lifetime. However, for most of the delegates at this conference, it wasn’t just a novelty experience – it was a poignant reminder that “sight is life,” especially for the worlds’ most vulnerable people.

To learn more about IAPB and the scope of the conference, click here.

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