Optometry Giving Sight

2012 is set to be a landmark year for the profession of optometry in East Africa - thanks to funding from Optometry Giving Sight, the first locally trained eye care professionals will graduate in Malawi, Mozambique and Mali.

Malawi
The Schools of Optometry Project in Malawi is a collaboration between Optometry Giving Sight, the International Centre for Eye Care Education, Sight Savers International, Mzuzu University and Malawi College of Health Sciences. 2012 will see the graduation of six of the country’s very first optometrists who will then go on to complete a year’s internship before entering the public sector as fully qualified eye care professionals. “The optometry program has provided me with the training I never expected in my life. I am proud of the fact that I am one of the pioneers of the optometry program at Mzuzu University,” said Ignatius, one of the six to graduate this year.
By 2014, 40 Optometric Technicians and 17 optometrists will have been trained to deliver primary eye care and refractive services to address the visual needs of people who currently have no access to eye care.

Mozambique
Since 2009 the Mozambique Eyecare Project (MEP) team, with support from Optometry Giving Sight, have been visiting the country with the ultimate aim of reducing avoidable blindness and vision impairment by 2020. The Project is an Irish Aid funded initiative, involving partners from Lúrio University in Mozambique and the International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE), in collaboration with the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and the University of Ulster. Mozambique’s first Optometry School in Universidade Lúrio, Nampula, will graduate the country’s first optometrists this year. Thanks to the efforts of this project, there will be 56 optometrists in Mozambique by 2015.

Mali
With an estimated population of more than 14 million, Mali currently has only one optometrist - Mr. Amassagou Dougnon, who received his training in France. In addition to working in local clinics, he is head of the new Training Centre for Optometry hosted within the Institut d’Ophtalmologie Tropicale de l’Afrique (IOTA).
The Training Centre was opened in 2008, and currently includes eight students per year that will graduate as Optometric Assistants from a program that is in line with US curriculum, which is highly regarded in Africa. The first graduates will soon be ready to commence working in the public health sector. In another 5 to 10 years, when the Centre will be ready to deliver courses leading to a full degree in optometry, it can start hiring its own graduates as teachers and become fully independent.

Top photo: The Malawi students celebrate their success, courtesy of Elaine Quinn