Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa with over 100 million inhabitants, has among the highest burden of visual impairment worldwide. Despite this huge burden, there are no adequate eye care services in most parts of the country and those existing are unsustainable, disease-focused vertical programmes with limited or no integration with the wider health system. Although there are cost-effective treatment strategies for eye care, there is insufficient evidence on how to implement these interventions to address the huge needs of communities in resource limited settings such as in Ethiopia. There is no adequate rehabilitation and support service for people with low vision. Low vision is a vision impairment that cannot be fully corrected by regular eyeglasses, contact lenses, medication, or surgery.
Eyu-Ethiopia works in all regions of the country to address these gaps by: (1) generating evidence through research, (2) building capacity of communities and eye care professionals and (3) integrating eye care service delivery into existing healthcare systems. We generate evidence on eye health challenges, management strategies and their impacts through epidemiological, clinical and implementation research. We empower and build the capacity of eye health and vision rehabilitation health workers by providing various on-the-job trainings and opportunities for eye care service delivery, vision rehabilitation and research in collaboration with local and international academic institutions. We implement an integrated and comprehensive eye care service delivery programme to reduce the burden of avoidable blindness and other non-vision impairing but disabling conditions by promoting awareness and integrating case identification and referral at all levels of the health care system.
We are also engaged in vision rehabilitation programmes to help restore the functional abilities and improve the quality of life of persons with low vision or blindness. We are also engaged in vision rehabilitation programmes to help restore functional abilities and improve the quality of life of persons with low vision or blindness.
Partners
We believe in collective efforts to achieve our goals. We work in conjunction with the Community, Federal and State Governments of Ethiopia, and partner with the Ministry of Health and Regional Health Bureaus, various governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, and other individuals and groups working on the same area within and outside Ethiopia.
Current Projects
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Trachomatous Trichiasis and Mental Health: a comparative impact study
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Funding:
This study is funded by the Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center at the Task Force for Global Health.
Aim:
This project aims to explore the impact of the blinding stage of trachoma (Trachomatous Trichiasis) on common mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and suicidality.
Background:
Trachoma is one of the most common NTDs, and the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. The blinding stage of Trachoma, Trachomatous Trichiasis (TT), causes painful corneal abrasion which ultimately leads to irreversible visual impairment from corneal opacity. The considerable pain and visual impairment from TT leads to functional and physical impairment, social withdrawal and exclusion, inability to work and earn income, which would result in low self-esteem, loss of sense of security, feeling of shame, and emotional distress leading to mental disorders. However, no quantitative study has been conducted to explore the impact that the blinding stag of trachoma has on the mental health of affected communities. In a recent NTD summit organized by the WHO, it was recognized that the mental health consequences of NTDs have been ignored and that researches exploring this in detail are needed.
Project Description:
This project has two study components: First, we will validate a generic stigma tool for measuring and monitoring self and community inflicted stigma in TT patients. No quantitative tools have been validated and used to measure stigma in TT patients. Once validated this tool can be adapted and used in various settings. Second, we will measure the impact of TT on three common mental disorders: depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and suicidal behavior and their drivers in comparative cross-sectional study using standard quantitative tools. The findings from these two studies would help to generate evidence and identify the unmet mental health care needs of trachoma affected communities. The results would be used to encourage allocation of resources for NTDs and common mental disorders to ensure that marginalized communities suffering from co-morbidities have access to basic, comprehensive and affordable health care services. The whole project will be completed and reported within 14-months.
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Integrated Management of Presbyopia in Rural Ethiopia (IMPiRE)
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Funding:
This study is funded by the Himalayan Cataract Project and Esillor Group.
Aim:
This project aims to establish Presbyopia management services integrated with the Primary Health Care (PHC) system in rural Ethiopia.
Background:
Presbyopia, an age-related near vision impairment (NVI), is one of the most common causes of visual impairment worldwide with 1.8 billion people affected globally. It significantly reduces quality of life, ability to complete daily activities, quality and productivity at work which will have huge economic implications on the affected person and their families. Presbyopia can be corrected inexpensively and effectively with a pair of readymade near vision glasses by low-level healthcare cadres. However, near vision spectacle services that can address the need of low-income rural communities are lacking.
Project Description:
The IMPiRE project will be implemented in two phases: IMPiRE-I and IMPiRE-II. In IMPiRE-I, we are piloting the safe and integrated distribution of near vision correction glasses to people with Presbyopia by primary health care cadres as part of the PHC system in rural parts of West Gojam Zone, Ethiopia. Local communities and health workers are actively engaged in the design, advertising and delivery of the services. The community is contributing to the service by paying US$ 5.6 (~200 ETB) per pair of glasses to establish a sustainable service through a revolving fund. People not able to afford have been served free of charge.
In IMPiRE-II, lessons learnt from the piloting phase will be used to scale-up integrated presbyopia management services and lay the foundation for comprehensive and integrated primary eye health services in other districts of Amhara Region and Ethiopia. This phase also contains research components assessing impact and efficiency of different service delivery models.