Our Strategy
Through our time-proven processes we are able to make an impact and help eradicate cataract blindness worldwide. First, we educate and empower through the valuable donations from our world partners and then we are able to make a sustainable impact.
Why Cataract Blindness?
Globally, nearly 1 billion people live with moderate or severe distance vision impairment. Of those 1 billion people, 94 million are impacted by cataract impaired vision, most of whom live in low to middle-income countries such as Tanzania where limited access to eye care can mean a life of blindness. Numerous studies have shown that sight restoration with cataract surgery is one of the most cost-effective and successful healthcare interventions.
Cataract blindness is curable with a 20-minute procedure that is 97% successful when performed by a competent, well-trained surgeon. Without surgery, a person loses their ability to see and thus function independently. As they become de-pendent on others for care, they often lose their ability to work and therefore contribute in their community, ultimately perpetuating the poverty cycle.
When we restore a person’s sight, we give two people back their lives- the patient and the care-giver. More importantly, failing to cure cataract blindness when it can be cured is immoral. To not provide people with this most basic medical procedure is impossible to justify in our privileged world.
The Eye Corps Approach
Eye Corps believes that partnership with the local community is the only path to sustainability. Our mandate is therefore advanced by identifying in- country surgeons who are committed to serving their community. We then work with them by providing sustainable resources which include:
- Training to enable the surgeon to provide quality care
- Equipment through long-term lease
- Trained nurses and clinical assistants
- Stipends to ensure that the practice has a focus on those who could not otherwise obtain quality care
- Continued education and postgraduate training
- Postgraduate mentorship
Equipment Barriers
The equipment cost for a basic eye clinic and operating room is over 175,000 US dollars, which is beyond the means of the average ophthalmic surgeon in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, Eye Corps provides long-term loans of microscopes, slit lamps, and other surgical equipment to enable surgeons to perform their jobs. In return, each surgeon selected by Eye Corps must commit to serving the indigenous and must honor that commitment in order to maintain ownership of the equipment.
Continuing Education
Eye Corps evaluates each surgeon in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses and designs a training program to improve upon their surgical skills, clinical acumen, and leadership. Each training program is tailored to the needs of that particular surgeon.
Eye Corps provides nurses with a three-month in-country training at either Mvumi University or Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center. This program is designed to provide the knowledge and skills to screen ophthalmic patients, assist in surgery, and provide post-op care.
Eye Corps partners with, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (Eye Department) which is the leading postgraduate Master of Medicine, Ophthalmology program in Tanzania, as well as the Tanzania Ophthalmology Society, Dodoma Benjamin Makapa University and Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center to provide ongoing educational opportunities to improve the quality of care.
Donate
Through your valuable donation, Eye Corps is able to provide a simple surgery and change a life. For $100,000 we can identify a surgeon, train him or her, equip and modernize a facility and subsidize that surgeon for years so he or she can change that community. You will be giving sight to 1,000 people a year for a very long time. That is something you can be proud of!