Speaking at a public event to mark the World Sight Day in Dar es
Salaam on Monday , the Bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Liz Lloyd, said
the Bank’s ‘Seeing is Believing’ initiative, which funds projects to
tackle avoidable blindness in the markets in where the bank operates,
will reach ten regions in Tanzania.
She added that the bank is focusing on Children’s Eye Care and
Health in its current phase which was launched in November, 2012 and is
expected to run until the end of 2016.
"The bank has decided to focus on children in the new phase and you
may wonder why - the impact of blindness and visual impairment on
children is far greater than that for adults as a child has their whole
life to live before them," she explained.
" In terms of the impact on reducing years lived with disability,
curing a child of blindness is, on average, equivalent to curing ten
adults with cataract blindness," she noted.
She also pointed out that the project already covers six regions of
Tanzania, Manyara, Mbeya, Rukwa, Tabora, Dar es salaam and Mwanza and
intends to cover four more regions in the next one to two years.
Under the ‘Seeing is Believing’ initiative, the bank has raised
over USD32Million to date and invested in 66 projects in 23 countries to
cure and prevent blindness.
‘Seeing is Believing’ has funded cataract operations for 2.78
million people and touched the lives of over 20 million people around
the world through its work to develop comprehensive eye care facilities
among underprivileged populations across the developing world.
In Tanzania, the Bank’s ‘Seeing is Believing’ initiative has raised
USD800, 000, which is equivalent to 1.2bn/- , in its previous phase –
2009 and 2010. It had partnered with Comprehensive Community Based
Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT) where over 177,000 people benefitted
from the project.
Under the new phase, by June this year, over 21,500 children had
been screened in various regions in Tanzania covered by the project.
Over 60 surgeries had been carried and over 70 refractive errors had
been corrected.
On completion, the project is expected to achieve big results
including 17 million Tanzanian children benefitting through conducive
changes in National Policies, strengthening of National Coordination and
promoting Child Eye Health, over 360,000 children accessing eye health
services at the eye unit level, over 2,000 children receiving surgery
for cataract operations and others, and over 5,400 children with
significant refractive error receiving spectacles.
The Bank has partnered with various eye care partners under two
consortia led by the Christian Blind Mission and the Brien Holden Vision
Institute and the Ministry of Health.
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