Intervida conducts ophthalmological campaigns for school children in Ecuador, a country in which there are 26 ophthamologists per million inhabitants
Madrid (26/05/2008). The World Health Organization (WHO) affirms that a simple vision exam and a pair of glasses is all that is needed to correct the majority of vision errors and defects. However, in a country like Ecuador, where in 2005 there were only 26 ophthalmologists per million inhabitants, these check-ups are not accessible to all. Aware of this situation, INTERVIDA’s teams, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, conduct ophthalmological campaigns and visual acuity days in the 63 schools where it carries out its projects.
According to the WHO, 153 million people around the world suffer from visual deficiency, of which 15 million live in Latin America. In the case of Ecuador, six out of every ten students present some visual difficulty. This means that these people have to use glasses to correct their myopia, hyperopia, or stigmatism, since they cannot properly focus in on images in the retina. This causes blurry vision, which in extreme cases, may lead to functional blindness in those affected.
To avoid these extreme cases, access to ocular health services which diagnose visual deficiencies and provide appropriate treatment is essential. However, in many Latin American countries, more than 60% of the population does not have access to these services, a situation which means that many children miss out on educational opportunities. Visual deficiency in childhood has a significant impact on all aspects of the child’s life (social, educational, psychological), affecting his or her independence and self-esteem, quality of life and interaction with the family and community.
The reasons why only a small part of the population accesses basic ophthalmological services have to do with factors ranging from the lack of diagnosis and detection of ophthalmological problems to obstacles related to access to services, lack of infrastructure and availability of services, human resources and information.
To improve the population’s access to basic ophthalmological services, the INTERVIDA teams in Ecuador have implemented actions to improve access to diagnostic exams and specialized ophthalmological treatments in the 63 schools where the organization develops its projects, since visual deficiencies should be corrected early on. As such, visual acuity days have also been undertaken, in which 20,200 boys and girls participated. Following these check-ups, those students for which problems were detected received appropriate treatment; they are provided with corrective glasses, as needed, and those who require specialized treatment, are referred to a special center where the can be attended to.
On the other hand, this project also pays special attention to training teachers and INTERVIDA staff so that they can detect children in the first and second grades of primary school who may have problems such as squinting, glaucoma, or cataracts, and so that they can also improve visual health conditions in the environment.
INTERVIDA’s interventions seek to contribute to the integral health of the community. In the schools, there are no health education spaced where programs and actions are taken to strengthen, protect, diagnose, treat and improve the health and prevention of illnesses to improve the quality of school life. This creates holes in coverage of health promotion, its diffusion and strategies to implement attitudes.
For this reason, the projects not only address prevalent health problems among the school groups, but also support attention and education programs for health in the school environment, providing the educational community with knowledge and appropriate practices in health. This way, the students are stimulated for the full physical, psychological and emotional development.
About INTERVIDA
FUNDACIÓN INTERVIDA is a nonpartisan, nondenominational and independent development NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Its objective is to contribute to sustainable human development towards improving the living conditions of the most disadvantaged communities around the world. Currently, INTERVIDA is active in various countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, offering its support to nearly five million people.
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