CELEBRATING WORLD SIGHT DAY IN ARMENIA
armradio.am
08.10.2009 16:22
On October 8, 2009, the Armenian EyeCare Project (AECP) medical team
visited the Abovian penitentiary for women to help those with limited
access to eye care on the occasion of the World Sight Day, celebrated
each October as a public awareness initiative to draw attention to
blindness prevention worldwide.
This year the World Sight Day is dedicated to gender and eye
health. Nearly two-thirds of blind people worldwide are women and
girls, and in several countries their access to eye care is more
limited than men’s. In this light, the AECP, the Republic of Armenia
Ministries of Justice and Health, and USAID/Armenia collaborated in
a joint initiative to raise public awareness of eye health care and
provide assistance to women in detention.
As part of this effort, the AECP team examined about 200 women and
girls in the Abovian penitentiary, prescribed appropriate medical
treatment, provided eye glasses and delivered a special presentation
for the imprisoned on basic eye diseases and their symptoms. In
addition, public education brochures on eye diseases and eye care
hygiene were distributed.
"According to global research data, equal access to eye care could
substantially reduce blindness in poor countries. Meanwhile, the data
collected by AECP show that, fortunately, Armenian women do not face as
serious gender bias as other countries=2 0when it comes to receiving
eye care," said AECP Country director Nune Yeghiazaryan. She noted
that according to 2003-2007 data, 73,832 patients (56.8 per cent)
from the 130,000 examined by the AECP were women. As well, 52 per
cent of the 5,645 Armenian citizens who received surgery on the
AECP Mobile Eye Hospital were women. "For this reason we decided to
help the women who have more limitations in their access to eye care
and live in a stressful environment," she said. Last year, the AECP
collaborated with the Department of Criminal-Executive Institutions
of the RA Ministry of Justice and visited several prisons, screening
more than 1000 prisoners, of which 782 were provided with eye glasses.
Within the framework of the World Sight Day 2009, the AECP
state-of-the-art Mobile Eye Hospital commenced operations in Aragatsotn
marz on October 6.
The AECP medical group will examine about 60-80 patients per day and
will remain in the marz until October 26.