School eye health program

A comprehensive school eye health program includes health promotion and prevention activities; activities to increase awareness about eye health and screening, detection and treatment of common eye conditions in these children.

1. Educating children about good eye health practices including dietary practices to prevent vitamin A deficiencies, facial cleanliness to prevent trachoma as well as outdoor play for prevention of myopia.
2. Screening can aid in early detection, referral and intervention, which helps improve educational attainment as well as have a positive psycho-social impact, including overall personality development.
3. This is also an opportunity to screen school teachers for eye conditions.

Refractive errors can be easily diagnosed, measured and corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses, yet millions of people in low and middle income countries do not have access to these basic services.

Without appropriate optical correction, millions of children are losing educational opportunities and adults are excluded from productive working lives, with severe economic and social consequences. Individuals and families are frequently pushed into a cycle of deepening poverty because of their inability to see well. At least 13 million children (age 5 to 15) and 45 million working-age adults (age 16 to 49) are affected globally. Fully 90% of all people with uncorrected refractive errors live in low and middle income countries.

“These results reveal the enormity of the problem,” said Dr Catherine Le Galès-Camus, World Health Organization Assistant Director-General, Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. “This common form of visual impairment can no longer be ignored as a target for urgent action.”

Refractive errors occur when the eye is not able to correctly focus images on the retina. The result is blurred vision, which is sometimes so severe that it creates functional blindness for affected individuals. The three most common refractive errors are:

1. Myopia (nearsightedness) – this is difficulty in seeing distant objects clearly.
2. Hyperopia also known as Hypermetropia (farsightedness) – this is difficulty is seeing close objects clearly.
3. Astigmatism – This is distorted vision resulting from an irregularly curved cornea.

In general, These projects reach populations who are underserved or who have limited or no access to eye health care services. The program funds high-quality, sustainable projects that deliver eye care services, develop infrastructure, train personnel and/or provide rehabilitation and education in underserved communities.

Trinity Care Foundation has been providing healthcare for Government schools in Karnataka State, India since 2010, and undertakes the following activities with authorization from Government, Visit https://www.flickr.com/photos/trinitycarefoundation/sets/72157645567132363/ ?

Trinity Care Foundation (TCF) a Non-Profit Organization, has the Trust registration, PAN, TAN, 12AB, 80G, Professional tax and FCRA. It is registered with NITI Aayog, Government of India. TCF has registered with Ministry of Corporate Affairs for undertaking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities and the registration number is CSR00003858.

For CSR partnership, Connect with Dr. Tony Thomas or Mr. Binu Varghese

Write to ( [email protected] ) for implementing CSR Projects in alignment with UN's SDGs. Executed Social Projects by Trinity Care Foundation can be viewed at the link : https://www.flickr.com/photos/trinitycarefoundation/albums?

#schoolhealth #eyehealth #publichealth #corporatesocialresponsibility #SDGs #csrindia

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