Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, 22 January 2016: Lasting achievements highlight the completion of a five year project which focused on drastically reducing the prevalence of blindness, eye disease and vision impairment in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nigeria. The Seeing is Believing Phase IV project funded by the Standard Chartered Bank recorded positive figures of impact during the year 2011 to 2015 across education, infrastructure and service delivery initiatives.

These impact figures include screening of 218,958 people and of those 14,942 received spectacles, 996 received low vision devices and 786 cataract surgeries were performed, giving new sight to many beneficiaries. There were a total of 1460 government personnel trained across the necessary levels of eye care and it was estimated 2.5 million people received eye health education messages through print and electronic media.

The FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat under the Public Health Department led the implementation of this initiative with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) which was managed by the Brien Holden Vision Institute. The consortium of organisations working collaboratively under the Institute’s management had diverse objectives with each having its own target to achieve.

Some of the objectives achieved were in service delivery, human resource development, infrastructure and equipment development. Such objectives made it possible for the integration of skills, knowledge sharing and expertise. The project established and strengthened eye care centres in Kubwa and Bwari General Hospitals, and introduced new services namely: eye surgery, optical dispensing, and clinical low vision care.

  Click here to read the news story written and published by the Nigerian FCT Government newspaper. The story focuses on the community impact and eye health successes of the five year Seeing is Believing program.