Bringing Low vision Services for
children closer to the Community
Elizabeth Kishiki (MPH)
Childhood Blindness and Low Vision
Coordinator
Purpose and rationale
Purpose
• To integrate low vision
services with the available
eye care.
• Improve educational
services for visually
impaired children
Rationale for the project
• Low vision care was
limited to tertiary
hospitals
• Few children could access
the services
• Skills in low vision among
the optometrists were
limited
• Low vision devices were
not found outside tertiary
hospitals
Capacity building
• Regional eye coordinators (7
regions)
• Optometrists at regional
hospitals (8 optometrists)
• General classroom teachers
• Special needs education
teachers (156 teachers in 13
annexes)
• Teacher trainers and trainees
(Patandi) and trainers
Expansion of the project in 2010 one more region was added with training
of District Special Needs Education Officer
Results
• Services integrated in
8 regions
• More children being
assessed 13%-82%
• More children are using
print 51%-79%
• Improved collaboration
between teachers and
optometrists
Conclusion
• More education is needed among teachers
• Collaboration and annual assessment for VI
children will depend on the efforts within
MoH and MoE