THE EDUCATOR
Winter 1999
International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment
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Children's Blindness Prevention Program for Papua
New Guinea and the Region
Anna Kiousis, Development Officer, P.I.C. (Australia)
Children's Blindness Prevention Program was scheduled
to begin in Goroka, Papua New Guinea in October 1997, following a generous
grant of US $25,000 from the International Eye Foundation, USA. P.I.C.
(Australia), as the collaborating partner with the Mt. Sion Center for
the Blind (Papua New Guinea), was one in nine applicants to receive a grant
from a total of 34 applications.
Papua New Guinea has an area of 4.63 million square
km with a total population of four million, of which 40.6% are under 15
years of age and 15-20% are under five years old. Goroka, the capital of
the Eastern Highlands Province, has an estimated population of 400,000.
There are approximately 60,000 to 80,000 children under the age of six
in the area of influence of Goroka. Goroka, therefore, provides an excellent
setting where a children's Blindness Prevention Program may be most effective.
The Children's Blindness Prevention Program will
involve increasing the number of trained personnel capable of doing basic
refraction, identification and initial treatment of most common eye conditions.
It will also provide screening in the community with emphasis on schools
and remote villages, and deliver general eye health knowledge in the native
language of the communities.
One of the activities involved with the project
is to conduct Pediatric Ophthalmology seminars, which will include the
visit of experts in the areas of strabismus, optometry, low vision, ophthalmology
and orthoptics. These seminars will be one week courses with on-site visits,
as well as surgical procedures, spread out during one year, to which all
the practicing ophthalmologists, optometrists, eye nurses and related allied
health personnel from the region are invited. The first seminar on Pediatric
Opthamology began in October 1997.
Experts from the region or from Australia who are
interested in conducting a one week seminar, please send your curriculum
vitae and a letter outlining your expertise to: Anna Kiousis, Development
Officer, Pacific Islands Council (Aust), P.O. Box 123 Brighton, VIC 3188
AUSTRALIA Fax: (613) 9598.4158.
Alternatively, if you wish to be a participant in
one of the seminars, Anna Kiousis will supply you with the details.
We hope to welcome as many participants from the
region as possible so that, through the sharing of experience, the seminars
can be truly stimulating.