CBM publishes its first Inclusive Eye Health Report
Malawi: Ezimala, 70 years old, was identified and referred for cataract-surgery by the CBM partner Macoha.
© CBM/Hayduk
CBM’s work in eye health started in 1908, and 112 years on, it has expanded to 106 partners across 35 countries implementing 124 projects in eye care and neglected tropical diseases. Along with numbers, there has been an immense progress in the way work is delivered, how surgery, planning and partnerships have improved.
The Inclusive Eye Health (IEH) Report 2020 gives an insight into this, covering the global Vision 2020 initiative and CBM’s IEH Initiative plan, as well as the way planning of eye care projects is done. It gives details of the first status survey of CBM eye health partners that has been accomplished in early 2020 and which highlighted the needs of partners and now leading to the procurement of a large state of the art equipment– the largest single equipment purchase in CBM’s history to ensure that we meet the changing needs of the community through our well-equipped partners.
While quantities are important, this must go hand in hand with quality. Learn about CBM’s quality management approach, technical development that lead to better surgical outcomes, what we do to enhance the skills of ophthalmologists and how we involve European Universities. Smartphones have revolutionised life all over the globe and in partnership with Peek Vision Ltd, we create new ways of approaching eye care in our partner countries. Find more details in the report, learn about the latest consortium work “Vision 4 Africa”, and what is done to support our partners in the current pandemic.
The 2019 World Report on Vision shows that at least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness. Of these, at least 1 billion, mainly living in low- and middle-income regions, have a vision impairment that could have been prevented, corrected or cured. Leading causes are unaddressed refractive errors and cataract. And while further precautionary measures are required with COVID19, the solutions are there – but a lot is still to do.
In the year 2020, we have recognized that eye care is a major problem which can be solved and in partnership with the eye health community, we now have the knowledge and the resources to face the upcoming challenges. Now should be the era of scale for all of us and CBM looks forward to going to scale in the next decade.