About the program

The Foundation works with local partners at district and community level in Nangarhar Province to serve an estimated population of over one million people. The program focuses on human resource development, ensuring local medical workers are trained to service the high demand for eye health services, as well as to ensure sustainability of service delivery within the country.

In 2009 The Foundation also worked with partners at Nangarhar Public Health Hospital's eye unit to continue provision of essential and quality eye care services whilst also holding eye camps and school screening camps.

Key focus areas of the program in Afghanistan are:

Human resource development

• Training health personnel in eye health, including surgeons - upgrading their skills to the latest manual cataract small incision surgical techniques; training paramedics to become ophthalmic technicians; and training refractionists to improve their skills and capacity. Project management training is also being provided to hospital staff.

Infrastructure and equipment

• A needs assessment was conducted to establish a Community Vision Centre (CVC) at the Ministry of Public Health Provincial Hospital, Kunar Province. Once established, the CVC will provide eye care services to the people of Kunar and Nooristan Provinces. The assessment was carried out in collaboration with the Provincial Public Health Director and local partners. The results concluded the need for ophthalmic equipment and improved infrastructure, human resources development, and systems development.
  

Disease control

• Eye camps and school screening camps have been held to screen, treat and refer patients in Nangarhar province.
• The school screening activities were conducted in collaboration with Human Concern International Afghanistan. Students were provided with glasses if needed or referred to the Ministry of Public Health Hospital (MoPH) for further investigation and treatment. Members from the general community were also examined, with cataract patients being referred to the MoPH hospital. They were operated on in the free eye camp.
• Intraocular lenses, together with consumables were provided for the cost sharing/cost recovery project at MoPH Hospital in Nangarhar Province, and for the outreach activities planned by HealthNet.
• Thousands of patients were screened for eye diseases, and cataract surgeries and other sight restoring operations were carried out.

Advocacy and partnership

• The existing partnership with the Ministry of Public Health and HealthNet continues, and a new partnership has been formed with Human Concern International to coordinate the effective delivery of eye care services to the community.
• Community eye health awareness campaigns were conducted, with the display of banners and public announcements in local languages.