|
Dark & Light Blind Care was founded in 1982 by the Dutch ophthalmologist Martien
Cozijnsen Dark & Light is helping visually impaired and other disabled
people in Asia and Africa. They work with a focus on sustainability:
through projects for prevention, treatment, education, vocational training and
income generation, run by local partners. With this in mind, the most
recent collaboration of our two organsiations is the support of the SERVE
Prevention of Blindness project in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a country located in central Asia with a population of around 30 million
people. The country is divided into 34 provinces.
SERVE is currently working in the following regions of Afghanistan: Jalalabad (East),
Kabul (Central), Kandahar (South) and Aqcha (North). SERVE projects focus
on preventative health, community health, community development and programs
for people with disabilities. SERVE is also involved in Water &
Sanitation, Animal Husbandry, Literacy, Micro Enterprise Development and Self
Help Group work. Serve also partakes in Capacity Building programs
to train Afghan nationals to take more responsibility for the development work in Afghanistan.
The PBL project was started 8 years ago with a focus on preventative eye illness. There
are presently three mobile screening teams (MST) and a mobile operation team (MOT)
in action. The teams travel throughout Afghanistan screening patients
with eye problems in villages and schools and providing educational workshops to
health professionals in the areas where they are working.
As part of the mobile service, refraction and glasses are available at a
very reasonable rate but to help cover costs SERVE do charge for some eye medicine,
surgery and spectacles. This is in an effort to help build financial
sustainability and give a realistic ‘value’ to the medical services
offered. 70% of SERVE - PBL patients pay for their medication, surgery and/or spectacles.
The mobile operation team (MOT) service commenced in May 2007. It was the result
of a need observed by the mobile teams while working in remote areas. A mobile
optical microscope for surgical purposes was purchased from Australia and the first eye
camp was successfully completed in the north of the country in Aqcha. The MOT
perform surgery in community health centres or local clinics. The SERVE
Mobile Operating Teams perform mainly cataract surgery on patients identified by the
mobile teams. These teams will also provide post-op care and counselling.
The purpose of SERVE is to serve the people of Afghanistan, especially the needy
as we seek to help them address their personal, social and environmental needs. It
is also seeking to reduce the prevalence of blindness to 1.0% in line with the vision 2020
goal for avoidable blindness in the country. The project is focusing on primary
eye care through the Mobile Screening Teams with the Mobile Operating Teams performing
eye surgery as well as teaching medical staff in the target area. SERVE is
registered with the government of Afghanistan and works in co-operation with other
relief and development organizations. It is also registered as a British NGO.
|
