By Carly Kruyer | CEO of Eye's of Africa
Do you know the definition of impairment/blindness?
Visual acuity (In the better seeing eye) is displayed like the following;
6/6 - 6/18 - Considered 'normal'
6/18 - 6/60 - Considered to have a visual impairment
<6/60 - 3/60 - Considered to have a severe visual impairment
<3/60 - Considered blind (Which means they can be considered 'legally blind,' which at max the person under testing can see at six meters, that of what a 'normal sighted' person will at 60 meters.)
The extent of blindness in South Africa alone is 0,75%, and 80% of blindness is either preventable or able to treat with simple and inexpensive means.
In Africa, approximately 26.3 million people have some form of visual impairment with an esimate that 15.3% of the world's blindness lies in Africa.
Did you know 80% of blind people live in rural areas?
This is why we are on a mission to provide testing in schools and communities that lack access to healthcare.
In a few weeks, we will be launching our first outreach day across a few selected schools in the local communities. After some basic testing, children that are identified will be sent for further testing at a Optometrist, something they would not be able to access and the lack of could lead to severe impairment down the road.
We thank you for all your contributions so far, you've made this program possible! There is still so much more to do in the battle of visual impairment and we hope you'll join us along the way.
Thanks again,
By Shayle Havemann | Project leader
By Shayle Havemann | Project leader
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