The second highest incidence of blindness in children in the world is in India (The highest being Ethiopia)

Every year 50,000 new cases of blindness in children are registered in Gujarat and it costs only a few pounds to prevent it.


BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

1. 80% of blindness is preventable. 10% can be cured by surgery. Only 10% is unavoidable.
2. 4 children per 10,000 births in India are blind.
3. Blindness is 4 times higher in poor families than in well off family.
4. Blindness in a child affects not only the child but also the rest of the family who have to look after the child. Subsequently, the person becomes dependent on the country.
5. No one likes to be dependent and rely on family support.


OUR OBJECTIVE:

PROJECT 2006 Reduce the number of blind children in Gujarat and hopefully eventually eradicate it.


COMMON SIGHT PROBLEMS
In 0-6 years age group

1. Vitamin A deficiency in pre school age children can lead to corneal blindness as age advances, this can be identified through screening and corrected by dietary supplements.
2. Squint
3. Trauma
4. Congenital problems manifesting at a later date like ROP and malignancies.

In 6 – 12 years age group

Refractive errors mainly school myopia (near sightedness) are a major problem in Gujarat, if left uncorrected this can lead to blindness. More than 15 per cent of children under the age of 15 have significant vision impairment. Half of all cases of refractive error (near sightedness, far sightedness and astigmatism) remain undetected and uncorrected.

Poor vision in childhood will affect the performance in school and have a strong negative influence on the future of the child’s development and may contribute to the high drop out rate from schools in India.

It costs only a few pounds to prevent blindness in children.

GUJARAT STATE Population – 52 million 11 thousand villages with a population of about 3 thousand in each village. 29 Districts with a population of about a million. It is a mammoth task to reach all these people. but

if we work together we can achieve it.


HOW WE CAN ACHIEVE OUR OBJECTIVE:

1. Awareness and education
Posters and books with visual information rather than the written word. We will achieve this through schoolteachers and village volunteers. Teachers and volunteers will be trained to do basic assessment of vision recording and filter out as many as normal cases to avoid both time and resources.

2. Screening
Twice a year a mobile unit will visit schools and villages and all the children will be examined by ophthalmic assistants.

3. Mobile Units
An Ophthalmic assistant and a driver will travel to the villages and schools every morning. Approximately 40 – 50 mobile units are needed. Units will be affiliated to existing charitable eye hospitals of which there are 20 – 25. These will act as a base hospital. The Ophthalmic assistant will refer children to this base hospital where they will be treated free of charge.


COSTING:
A mobile unit with basic examination kit would cost £5,000
50 Mobile units – approximately £500,000
Cost of running each unit:- Ophthalmic Assistant Salary Rs. 7000 (£80.00) per month
Driver Salary Rs. 3500 (£40.00) per month
Running cost Rs. 4500 (£60.00)

TOTAL COST: Rs.15,000 (£180.00) per month

Approx £100,000 per year running costs plus £500,000 for the purchase.

Target To Raise : £1,000,000

so that we have funds available to run this project for at least 4 – 5 years.