Standard Chartered Bank launches project to help 4 million visually impaired children

Standard Chartered Bank has just launched the first of the five $5million projects as part of their ‘Seeing is Believing’ programme to help tackle children’s eye health across Africa. The programme led by CBMUK, the overseas disability charity based in Cambridge, will contribute to improved child health and the reduction of avoidable blindness in children in East Africa.

Overall, the programme aims to help more than 4 million children across East Africa through greater public awareness of prevention of childhood blindness. This will improve child eye health service delivery and enhance access to quality child centres and child friendly eye-care services for over  millions of children in East Africa.

Poor eye sight will impact a child’s ability to read and, therefore, has a huge impact on their education and future. The programme will implement vision screening examination in schools for children and provide spectacles to those who need them. As part of this, hand and face washing will be promoted to prevent transmission of blinding infectious diseases.

There are 1.4 million blind children in the world and about 40% of the causes of childhood blindness are preventable or treatable. 

Children in low income countries are four times as likely to be blind as those born elsewhere. Many of the conditions associated with childhood blindness are also causes of childhood mortality, such as premature birth, measles, rubella, vitamin a deficiency and meningitis. This project will contribute to lowering the risk of child mortality through childhood blindness control interventions and promotion of child eye health care.

Every minute, a child goes blind. 

“Less than 10% of blind children attend school which clearly has a huge impact on their education, their self confidence and their ability to gain the knowledge and skills they need for their future. By identifying preventable and treatable blindness at a young age this programme will transform the lives of 4 million children acrossEast Africa.” Says Kirsty Smith, CEO for CBMUK.

The programme will train community health-care workers including midwives and traditional birth attendants in preventive eye care, simple treatments, early detection and referral. The programme will focus on community outreach to identify new patients, particularly focusing on girls who are often marginlised from society as well as those with additional disabilities.

 

To learn more about CBM please visit: www.cbmuk.org.uk

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For further press information, including case studies, pictures or interviews with spokespeople from CBM please contact the CBM media team on 01223 484700, clarer@cbmuk.org.uk.  For media enquiries out of hours, please call 07903 205442.

CBM Information For Editors

CBM, the overseas disability charity, is an international disability and development organisation committed to improving the quality of life of people with disabilities and those at risk of disability. CBM is working in over 80 of the poorest countries of the world and reaching more than 36 million people each year.

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