22 Oct 2017

Assistant Minister of Health and Wellness, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele says Botswana, like most developing countries, continues to battle with blindness and visual impairment issues.

Speaking at the comprehensive school eye health programme partners celebrations on October 19, Mr Makgalemele said continued increase in the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment was worrisome.

That, he said was because prevalence in eye health problem was in spite of the different interventions that government had put in place while 80 per cent was preventable.

Nonetheless, he said in efforts to strengthen government’s interventions in combating eye health problems, the ministry had been in partnership with Addenbrooke’s Abroad since 2007 through the Vision 2020 Link programme.

“From this partnership, Pono Letlotlo project was established with the set out plan to improve eye health services to prevent blindness amongst people with diabetes, children, and those with refractive errors,” he said, indicating that the partnership was informed by the ministry’s National Eye Health Strategic plan.

He further explained that the Pono Letlotlo project was funded by ‘Seeing is Believing’, which is an initiative between Standard Chartered Bank and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness.

Mr Makgalemele said a lot had been achieved through the project, including capacity building among ophthalmic personnel, establishment and equipping of the Sekgoma Memorial Hospital vision centre as well as the training of officers in India as eye-instrument technicians.

He further added that there were active partnership programmes between Addenbrooke’s Abroad and the ministry in other areas such as intensive care, maxillofacial and neonatal services at Princess Marina Hospital.

“Another achievement by the ministry, through the Botswana-University of Pennsylvania Partnership, was the Peek School Screening Pilot Project in the Goodhope sub-district,” he added.

He noted that the pilot was mainly made possible by Peek Vision, through their eye screening phone application.

Through the pilot project, he said 12 877 pupils were screened from 49 schools, 835 of whom received spectacles while 157 were referred to primary health care facility or secondary health care facility for ophthalmic services.

Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust chief executive officer, Dr Astrid Bonfield said it was heartening that Botswana was taking historic steps in the field of child eye health.

Dr Bonfield said the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, had chosen as one of its two programmes, to combat avoidable blindness across the Commonwealth.

She indicated that three out of four people who were blind or visually impaired did not need to be because their blindness or poor sight could had been prevented or treated using simple and inexpensive, tried and tested solutions.

“We are fortunate to live in an age where technology is progressing very rapidly, improved and innovative solutions continue to be developed to help us to make preventable blindness and poor sight a thing of the past,” she said.

She noted that the impact of visual impairment on those affected, their families and communities was immeasurable, adding children failed to progress at school and adults were unable to support their families.

Again, she said there was also economic cost in lost productivity and health and social care, all of which she observed were avoidable.

Further, Dr Bonfield said while eye health partners were doing what they could and were achieving notable advances across the world, it was critical that governments took up the cause and made it their own in efforts to achieve transformative, permanent and systemic change.

“Taking the necessary steps to tackle avoidable blindness, grasping the opportunity to end and age-old problem because we can and should, requires bold and visionary leadership,” she noted, saying such leadership should be the kind that can challenge existing practices, embrace pioneering innovation and technology with drive and determination to see the changes through.

On the other hand, Dr Andrew Bastawrous, founder and CEO of Peek Vision, a UK-based social impact organisation that develops eye health programmes utilising smartphone-based technology, said Botswana through their eye health partnership, would be the first country in the world where every child got the opportunity for good vision.

Dr Bastawrous said it would remain critical to avail every person, in particular children, the opportunity to enjoy good vision through the provision of quality eye health programmes.

In Botswana, he said the opportunity of ensuring that every child had good vision, would be realised through the groundbreaking of Pono Yame child eye health programme, which was launched by the British High Commision recently.

That, he said would also ensure that no child had their talent hampered by visual impairment.

He noted that while every child was talented as talent was universal, opportunity to effective and easily-accessible eye health services was not.

Earlier in her welcome remarks, the British High Commissioner, Ms Katy Ransome noted that the objective of the eye health partnerships with the Botswana government was to give every child the opportunity to see.

Ms Ransome said while some cases of blindness were preventable, it was important that collaborative efforts be made to make the reality true for every child to be able to see.  ENDS