Earlier this year, Dulwich College donated a Slit Lamp to Bolgatanga Regional Hospital in the Upper East Region of Ghana where international eye health charity, Vision Action, had recently established a new Vision Centre.
Vision Centres provide sustainable, affordable eye care services to the surrounding communities. Giving patients access to eye tests and affordable glasses made to prescription at the optical workshop within the Vision Centre.
A Slit Lamp provides a more detailed examination of the eye and therefore can detect eye diseases, which must be detected early so treatment can be effective to avoid sight loss.
One of the three pillars of our 10-year strategy is strengthening essential eye health services at schools, communities, and through vision centres.
There is growing evidence on how poor vision negatively impacts a person’s productivity, wellbeing and life opportunities, disproportionately affecting the poor, rural communities and females. Adults with poor vision struggle to work, and children cannot learn effectively.
Charles Koduah, Eye Health Team Lead for Vision Action Ghana said, “The Slit Lamp is a great asset to the Vision Centre, and the community it serves will really benefit from this kind donation. On behalf of the Vision Centre, I wish to thank Dulwich College for their donation.”
As well as providing eye care services to the community the Vision Centre is part of an ongoing project to improve community-based eye care in Ghana and to achieve better health and education outcomes for children and adults in two districts in northern Ghana, where the Vision Centre has been established.
Robert Alibo, Country Director for Vision Action Ghana said, “The project will improve the lives of so many who struggle to see, especially those children who, without glasses, would have struggled to learn and may have dropped out of school.”