Narrative Report of World Sight Day Events 2024

Free eye screening from 10^th – 11^th October 2024 with awareness mini-marathon on 10^th for 10km.

Introduction

World Sight Day observed annually on the second Thursday of October, was celebrated on October 10^th, 2024. It is a global event that draws attention to blindness and vision impairment among populations. ‘LOVE YOUR CHILDS’ EYES’ has been the theme of this year’s World Sight Day. This time, our focus was on helping people understand the importance of protecting their children’s vision in their homes and in schools.

This year’s World Sight Day campaign aimed to encourage people to adopt eye health initiatives and standard practices and promote good eye health habits that will benefit the well-being, safety, and productivity of millions of children.

In the same efforts towards the international World Sight Day campaign 2024, (which was on the 10^th of October), GAF Eye Health Foundation with support Eye Health Africa, YouTube Community (GAF Medical Videos) and different partners come together to provide a free eye screening camp held at Buwandyambi, a village in Namisindwa district (along Magale-buwambigwa road).

Services provided during the camp included; eye health education, refraction and dispensing glasses, eye examination and treatment of eye diseases, referral of complicated and surgical conditions etc.

For this year’s World Sight day campaign, we added a new way and innovation of creating awareness by a mini-marathon of 10km.

Pre-Camp Activities

Arrangements for the camp were made in consultation with Namisidwa District Administration and the office of district health officer. This was done successfully and we were cleared to proceed with the activity.

We also approached different partners both locally and internationally for support towards the world sights day activities.

Partners

Efforts to hold the camp were supported by numerous different partners as displayed below.

Mobilization

This was achieved by means of radio announcements, radio talk show at IUIU radio station about eye health with great emphasis on child eye health, to keep in line with the World Sight Day theme.

Another mobilization was made possible by house visits by the village health teams (VHTS) and posters put up in conspicuous locations throughout the district’s communities.

Human Resources

There were a total of 20 persons to provide an expert human resource force comprising 4 volunteer ophthalmic clinical officers, 4 enrolled nurses, 1 Medical records officer, 1 medical clinical officer, 1 certificate dispenser and 9 VHTS. Patients were examined by ophthalmic clinical officers for the eye complaints that they had. Patients with general illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension were better managed by the medical clinical officer. Before referring patients to ophthalmic clinical officers for examination, the ophthalmic nurse helped them achieve adequate visual acuity.

The nurses also helped in checking blood sugar, nutritional assessment and blood pressure of the patients.

Patient records were captured and mobilized with the assistance of medical records and VHTS, respectively including community mobilization.

Every individual listed above performed the task as a volunteer and received a modest reimbursement for their transport to and from their homes.

Achievements

We successfully held the camp and the mini-marathon.
We received arc light torches from World Eye Cancer Hope through Eye Health Africa which really enabled us to do full eye examination of our patients who attended the event.
Patients got medicines and glasses freely.

The details of the patient seen, provided with medicines, glasses and those operated on are as under:

SNO	Particulars	Gender Representation	Beneficiaries
1	World sight day run	Males	25
1	World sight day run	Females	10
2	Eye screening event between 10^th-11^th October 2024	Males – adult	142
		Females – adult	86
		Children	280
3	Dispensing reading glasses	Males	64
3	Dispensing reading glasses	Females	30
4	Medicines	Males	210
4	Medicines	Females	298
5	Cataracts pending for surgery	Males – adult	24
		Females – adult	14
		Children	2
6	Distance glasses	Female	1
7	Cataract surgery	Male	6
7	Cataract surgery	Female	5
Total			519

Challenges

Transport challenges for the mobilization team as we were overcharged to hire a motorcycle.
Challenges with limited equipment for effective screening like an iCare Tonometer for checking eye pressure for the patients.
Lack of surgical equipment to support cataract surgery at a low cost.
Limited funds because many people required surgical interventions, particularly children with congenital cataracts and adults with cataracts.
We were unable to provide enough anti-glaucoma drugs to those who had been diagnosed with glaucoma because these were not budgeted for.
Cultural and religious beliefs and misconceptions about eye health.

Recommendations

Purchasing a motorcycle to support transport during activities in the localities.
Need to be carrying out cataract surgical camps on World Sight Day rather than only screening as it has always been.
Advocating for World Sight Day activities for at least a full week to cater for many patients.
More screening services are needed because so many people require care.
Continuous health education to do away with the myths and perceptions of the community.
Work on more collaboration with other organizations for the support towards surgeries.
Include more anti-glaucoma drugs in the budget in the next camps.
Follow up with patients who benefited from the screening.