10 Mar 2013

Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) has committed P4 million towards the eye care programme in the country.

The total cost for the programme is P5 million. Therefore, the Ministry of Health (MoH) together with its partners, Addensbrooke’s Abroad (Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) Health Partnership will contribute the balance.

Speaking at the launch of the Seeing and Believing Phase V, Typed 1 Project, in Gaborone on March 7, the SCB chief executive officer, Mr Moatlhodi Lekaukau said the initiative aimed at eradicating avoidable and curable blindness.

He said since the bank started the project in 2003, it had achieved the initial target of restoring sight to 28 000 by raising initial money for 56 000 sight restorations that year.

“In line with Vision 2016 pillar of building a just, compassionate and caring nation that has access to quality health facilities, through Standard Chartered Seeing is Believing initiative we saw it fit to re-affirm our commitment towards tackling preventable blindness,” he said.

MoH deputy permanent secretary for preventative health services, Ms Shannaz El Halabi said the ministry and Addenbrooke’s Abroad joint project was geared towards improving services to prevent blindness and visual impairment in the country.

She said the project also involved expert volunteers who would work with the ministry to improve and develop services to prevent blindness and low vision.

She said the focus of the programme was to achieve the Vision 2020: Right to Sight Goal of eradicating avoidable blindness by 2020.

“It is indeed quite shocking that the WHO estimate that 80 per cent of blindness throughout the world is avoidable.  By developing and improving services that prevent, detect and treat sight threatening conditions we can eradicate avoidable blindness here in Botswana,” she said.

Director of Addensbrooke’s Abroad, Ms Evelyn Brealey said the organisation intended through this project to support MoH to improve services to prevent blindness and visual impairment amongst the diabetics and children, as indicated in the 2020 national plan for the prevention of blindness.

She said they intended to establish leadership and management mechanism for these new and improved eye services, increase and improve the provision of screening and treatment for diabetic eye disease, building on the successes of the earlier projects in 2009 to 2011.

She said there were services offered in Gaborone and the intention was to extend them so that most diabetics throughout the country have access to screening and treatment.

Ms Brealey said her organisation would also establish a national programme for assessing children’s vision to ensure that sight threatening conditions are detected early and that appropriate interventions are made early.  Addensbrooke’s Abroad partnership with Botswana is entering its eighth year. ENDS