Sightsavers in its mission towards ensuring eye health and strengthening its commitment to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan is initiating the project of “School Eye Health Screening” in Gilgit Baltistan. In this regard, a Letter of Understanding (LoU) has been signed between the Government of Gilgit Baltistan and Sightsavers in Islamabad.
Under this project, Sightsavers will provide screening facilities to the school going children in Gilgit-Baltistan for common eye problems, provide free spectacles for the children with refractive error and also surgical treatment in partnership with department of health. Sightsavers will also provide ophthalmic screening equipment for the screening team. Furthermore, Sightsavers has also penned down its commitment for the establishment of a Low Vision and IT Resource Center in Special Education Complex, Gilgit Baltistan.
Chief secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan , Mohyuddin Ahmed Wani said that this project is addressing one of the most pressing challenges of eye health of school going children and unavailability of proper screening facilities. He appreciated the role of Sightsavers and said that this project is materializing the Government’s vision of making health facilities available for everyone at grassroot level.
Munazza Gillani, Country Director, Sightsavers said that Sightsavers is working to eradicate avoidable blindness and promote the rights of people with disabilities. This project will make a significant contribution to the effective scaling up of screening, refractive services and eyeglasses provision and will promote the integration of these approaches into government-led national programs.
Secretary Information, Ahmed Khan appreciated this initiative of Sightsavers. He said that such initiatives will help ensure good eye health in students and solve the associated issues of school dropouts and compromised learning outcomes.
