Comprehensive primary eye care is still not accessible for over one billion people world wide. Virtually no country has ubiquitous access, however, the problem of unavailable eye care is considerably worse for economically disadvantaged populations. The consequences of poor vision, even when only minor vision correction is required, seriously hamper contributions to societial survival and progress. To remedy this problem, volunteer services from eye care professionals and others from affluent communities have had little or hardly calculable effect. Few if any evaluative studies have been made to determine the benefits of lay volunteers, missionary workers and even well organized "official" programs such as the Peace Corps with primary eye care efforts. The evidence of care is limited to numbers seen, anecdotal reports, or items (eye glasses, medicine, nutritional supplements, etc.) dispensed. The InFOCUS philosophy is to shift the burden for establishing, sustaining and expanding primary eye care from eye care professionals to trained community workers. The role for eye care professionals providing aid or development assistance is to promote this "Bamako Initiative" with appropriate, affordable technology, training to use the technology, evaluation of its effectiveness, and helping to intiate local primary eye care development foci wherever possible - all short of actually delivering the care itself.
Learning Objectives: How to empower members of underserved communities to serve the vision care needs of the community
Keywords: Vision Care,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.