Great examples of this occur in our  programs in Ghana and Kenya, where we partner with Seeing is Believing to eliminate avoidable blindness by integrating primary eye care into the primary health care system.

Thanks to support from donors like you, our eye care programs are hard at work within the countries’ existing health structures and systems. We help hospitals help themselves by identifying gaps in human resources and improving facilities; and we work with communities to target their specific eye care needs and empower them to take ownership of their eye health.

By educating staff members at partner hospitals on all aspects of eye health care, we help instill appreciation of the importance of the eye care programs they’re helping to implement. This builds the staff’s pride and ownership of their work!

This approach has served us well in reducing costs and improving patient services, while ensuring the continuity of the project. Our sustainable practices ensure our programs – and the community benefits they provide – last well after funding has ended.

Because of donors like you, we’re able to implement cost-effective programs that eliminate avoidable blindness on a sustainable basis. Thanks to you, we’re one step closer to realizing this exciting vision − For All The World To See!

The post The effects of your generosity goes on – long after our work is done! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Ruth is an 11-year-old girl who lives with her family in a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Ruth’s father moved to Ghana’s capital city of Accra in search of new opportunities, and now Ruth lives with her mother and her two siblings in a room rented in an apartment compound.

Ruth’s mother Dora is the breadwinner of the family. She takes care of her family with the little profit she makes from selling food to the students at Ruth’s junior high school.

When our Operation Eyesight staff interviewed Ruth’s teachers, they said that she is a hard-working student. Sadly, Ruth had trouble with her vision, and her teachers told us that they knew she would excel at her studies if she could see the board better.

Ruth often complained of not seeing clearly from far away. She struggled to see the blackboard in her class even though she sat in the front row. Embarrassed, she had no choice but to ask her classmates if she could copy their notes.

Ruth’s mother and her teachers were saddened as they watched her struggle at school for more than four years. Unfortunately, Ruth’s mother wasn’t making enough money to afford treatment for her daughter. She felt helpless.

“I wondered why I could not see things that others could see. I was afraid I would go blind in the future!” Ruth said despairingly. What if she became a burden to her family? If she couldn’t see, she couldn’t study, and if she didn’t finish school, she wouldn’t be able to get a job when she was older. 

But then everything changed! One day, an eye doctor came to Ruth’s school to run a vision screening program. Ruth was diagnosed with refractive error. Yet, although the doctor assured Ruth that new eyeglasses would help her, at first she didn’t want them.

“People say that if you are young and you wear spectacles, your vision will only get worse. I was also worried my friends would laugh at me if I wore spectacles.”

After some counselling from the eye doctor, Ruth finally agreed to have her eyesight tested so a new pair of prescription eyeglasses could be ordered for her. Thanks to the generous donations of people like you, Ruth has since received her eyeglasses, completely free of charge to her family, and she’s so grateful!

“I am very happy. Now I know that I can do everything by myself. I want to thank the doctor and the generous people in Canada who made it possible for me to receive eyeglasses. God bless them for their kindness!”

We can’t thank you enough for your support. There are other young girls like Ruth who need your help. You can donate to our prescription eyeglasses program today, and bring more lives like Ruth’s into focus!

The post A pair of eyeglasses restores a girl’s future and independence! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Thanks to you…

Thirteen-year-old Tom (and thousands of children, women and men) in the Lake Kariba area, Zambia, received antibiotics to treat and prevent blinding trachoma!

Young Deborah and her sister Claries in Kenya received new prescription eyeglasses, and now they can see clearly and are doing better in school. Thanks to you, their lives and futures have been brought into focus!

This man in Ghana received sight-saving surgery, thanks to the incredible generosity of people like you! He’s grateful to have his sight back and his quality of life restored. His life is one of thousands your generosity has changed!

Fourteen-year-old Atul in India developed cataracts as a young boy, and he feared his future was lost. But thanks to your kind heart, he received sight-saving surgery and now has returned to his studies to build his future. Atul is just one of thousands whom your generosity has helped!

Finally, thanks to generous donors, we were able to re-commence operations in Nepal. Today, we’re partnering with the Nepal Eye Hospital in Kathmandu to provide families (like the one pictured above) with the quality eye health care they deserve. Thank you!

We at Operation Eyesight hope you and your family will enjoy this Canadian Thanksgiving with lots of turkey and stuffing! Thank you so much for all that you do – For All the World to See.

The post Thank YOU for all that you do! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

In addition to supporting over 5,000 cataract surgeries in Ghana, we focused on building capacity of our partner hospitals, thanks to funding through Seeing is Believing. With support from Ghana Health Service, we conducted training workshops for primary eye care workers, which focused on mobilizing and educating communities, identifying various eye conditions, treating minor eye health issues and referring patients for appropriate care.

In partnership with Australia’s Brien Holden Vision Institute, we also trained optometrists to identify and work with patients with low vision. In addition, we procured and installed low vision diagnostic equipment for 18 of our 35 partner hospitals and conducted training workshops for equipment technicians, who were taught how to maintain the hospitals’ ophthalmic equipment.

We supported our partners and other personnel from Ghana Health Service in running an awareness campaign in the hospitals and surrounding communities. The campaign included the distribution of educational brochures, as well as radio and television programs where people could phone in and ask questions.

By educating people about eye health and creating awareness of the services offered by our partner hospitals, we’re encouraging people to take charge of their own eye health.

Working with the Swiss Red Cross, Ghana Health Service, and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, we completed a National Blindness and Visual Impairment Study, which was supported by Seeing is Believing and aims to provide nationally representative data on blindness and visual impairment in Ghana.

This study, a first of its kind in the country, was spearheaded by Operation Eyesight and included nearly 4,600 survey participants. The study will be finalized and disseminated in 2017 and will be a valuable resource as we continue to develop our eye health advocacy efforts in Ghana!

And finally, through funding from Seeing is Believing and with support from our partner hospitals and volunteers from Standard Chartered Bank, we screened over 60,000 students and dispensed over 450 pairs of new prescription eyeglasses in Ghana. Incredible!

All of this was made possible by supporters like you! To help us continue our work in Ghana, please consider making a gift through our online Gift Guide. No gift is too small! As always, thank you for giving the gift of sight – For All the World to See!

The post 2016 Highlights from Ghana: Thousands have been given the gift of sight! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.