Many women ‘needlessly blind’

Over two-third of all blind people in the world are women living in developing countries. This is according to the recent report by the international not-for-profit organization, Sightsavers International.

It is largely because women in those countries are often last in line to access medical care. Also, cultural, social and economic factors mean that many women don’t have access to eye tests, glasses, medication or surgery.

Zambia, one of the poorest and least developed countries in Africa, faces the challenge of providing essential eye care services to those living in poor urban communities by building capacity of existing health systems.

Sightsavers is working alongside the Zambian Ministry of Health to train healthcare professionals at all levels, providing more job prospects and also expanding the eye care services available.

The project is also working to train a wide range of people from ophthalmologists who can treat complex eye conditions to community members, such as school teachers, who are able to identify basic eye conditions.

Beauty Chima is a primary school teacher who had been trained to run a eye screening sessions at her school. She has learnt how to identify different types of eye problems, treat simple conditions like conjunctivitis and refer more complex conditions like cataract to established treatment centers like clinics and hospital.

“The most common conditions which I encounter are refractive error long or short-sightedness and trachoma,” she said.

Trachoma, a nasty disease which mainly affects women and children living in dry and dusty environments with limited access to clean water, if left untreated can cause the eyelid to turn inward. 

Although, Non-Government Orgainsation (NGO) such as Sightsavers is working in training ophthalmologists personnel, more investment is still needed.

And Dr. Caroline Harper said: “Blindness affects 45 million people worldwide, and unless more is done to address this, the fight is set to double over the next 25 years.”