The need for child eye health services in Ghana is immense. It is estimated that 9,000 children are blind, and up to 70% of these cases are avoidable. There are only two trained pediatric ophthalmologists in the country and no formal pediatric training exists.
Orbis and our amazing partners created an 18-month program to help reduce childhood blindness and visual impairment by training ophthalmologists in child eye care. We have developed a plan to train Community Health Officers and introduce school screenings to build awareness and improve access.
In 2020 alone, we delivered:
In addition, and thanks to our advocacy efforts, Ghana’s Minister of Health inaugurated a new building funded by USAID to house the eye department.
Thanks to your support we're improving skills and building capacity at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and have increased the number of children accessing surgery by 51%.
We’re continuing to partner with the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital to develop quality pediatric services in collaboration with the Himalayan Cataract Project, which focuses on adult services.
Funded by Seeing is Believing, a Standard Chartered Bank initiative, we’re implementing four key interventions at community, primary and district levels of the health and education system to integrate eye health into the health system and drive demand for eye health services:
