Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa with a population of over 115 million people yet it has only 541 qualified optometrists. With one of the lowest average incomes per person in Africa, many communities still lack access to basic health and eye care.

We partner with the NGO Grarbet Tehadiso Mahber (GTM) to help improve the livelihoods of people living in southern Ethiopia by increasing access to primary eye care, glasses, and treatment for eye diseases. Between 2013 and 2016, our work resulted in 73% of children showing improvements in their school performance.

Vision Action has supported the establishment of seven Vision Centres across Ethiopia since 2001, enabling tens of thousands of people to receive eye tests and glasses, most for the first time in their lives.

We have partnered with The Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (EKFS) to provide eye health screening to over 45,000 children by trained teachers and healthcare workers. All children that require glasses or other forms of treatment will be treated by visiting eyecare teams. Teachers will also be screened and treated to ensure they can effectively deliver their classes.

We are currently running the Vision for Inclusion: Leave No Child Behind programme in partnership with Save the Children Ethiopia and USAID’s Child Blindness Programme. The programme aims to improve the integration of eye health into school health and nutrition programmes. If we can scale this innovative partnership, it has the potential to change the lives of many thousands of children with unmet visual needs.