Every time one of our community health workers interacts with a family during a door-to-door eye heath survey, she starts to collect data: the number of people in the house, their visual acuity scores, referrals given… and the list goes on. It all goes into a database so we can analyze the information and offer the community the best services possible.
As an international development organization and registered charity, we live in a world of data. The numbers we collect help us evaluate our programs, find efficiencies, show our impact and so much more. Our data builds trust with partners and donors, and it is the bedrock of one of our five programming areas: research and advocacy.
Thanks to our reputation as an organization that collects reliable data, we are increasingly being called on to participate in a variety of studies, and to add valuable input into policy decisions throughout the globe. Our growing credibility has opened doors to exciting opportunities, including leading major studies that shape national health strategies.
Ghana’s national blindness study
When Operation Eyesight began talks with Ghana’s Ministry of Health in 2006, with an eye on expanding our services into that country, what quickly became apparent was a lack of the kind of baseline data that we need when building our programs. After more discussions, it was decided that gathering that information would be one of Operation Eyesight’s first tasks in the country. Working with government ministries, along with several other organizations, we led the country’s first-ever National Blindness and Visual Impairment study.
At the helm of the study was our Technical Advisor, Dr. Boateng Wiafe, a widely respected ophthalmologist known for his decades of work advancing sustainable eye care across Africa.
Dr. James Addy, a co-investigator on the study and the former head of eye care with Ghana Health Service, recalls the lack of data at the time.
“We realized that we had only about two or three – not many – eye indicators in the platform that actually generates data for the country,” he says. “And from that study, we realized that 0.74 per cent of the population are blind … And then we had 1.07 per cent of the population having severe visual impairment. And so, putting everything together, it was about 1.5 million people who actually have visual problems.”
Published in 2015, the study continues to be a vital resource.
“The blindness and visual impairment study has been the go-to document for the government itself and all other non-governmental organizations working as far as eye health is concerned to plan their programs,” says Ghana Country Director Emmanuel Kumah, adding that it also informed the development of Ghana’s national eye health policy.
Data from the study was instrumental in the creation of the National Cataract Outreach Program, which offers quality cataract services to people in difficult-to-reach areas. The study’s findings also helped attract social enterprise and charitable eyeglasses providers to the country by proving the need for low-cost vision wear. Today, we’re looking for partners to help us update the nationwide study, ensuring Ghana’s eye health programs continue to be built on solid, current data.
Evaluating our programs on the ground
An important part of our work is bringing eye care closer to underserved communities, which means establishing vision centres and eye units in collaboration with our partner hospitals. These facilities offer comprehensive eye exams, dispense eyeglasses, offer various treatments and refer more complex cases to the partner hospital. Some of these clinics are built in remote, rural areas, while others are established in busy, densely populated urban areas.
One of our urban vision centres is in a bustling, low-income neighbourhood in Pune, Maharashtra, India. To get a stronger understanding of its benefit to the community, the vision centre was the subject of a study led by the Community for Eye Care Foundation and members of our team in India. Over the four years of the study, 44,000 people living in the area were surveyed at two intervals by community health workers to track their eye conditions and their eye care-seeking behaviours.
What they found is that the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment in the community was reduced by nearly 62 per cent over the four years. Women continued to have a higher prevalence of blindness, but the gender gap narrowed during that same time span. The study found that more women visited the vision centre than men, and that more people made themselves available for a repeat eye examination during the second door-to-door survey. The study’s authors attribute these changes to the gentle nudging of the community health workers through their door-to-door surveys, and the existence of a nearby vision centre served by a predominantly female staff.
Our own CEO, Kashinath Bhoosnurmath and former Program Manager Soumya Moosa (now a Teaching Assistant at the University of Southern Mississippi), were co-authors of the study, published in 2022 in the India Journal of Ophthalmology.
Studying the economic gains of good eyesight
Our participation in health studies continues to grow, with Operation Eyesight on board to gather data in Kenya for a joint study, between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and other partners, that’s investigating the economic benefits of correcting near-vision impairment (presbyopia) in adults.
The five-year study will look specifically at adults ages 35 to 65 with presbyopia by running two randomized controlled trials in India and Kenya. With 20,000 patients to be engaged across two countries, participants will either receive reading glasses at the outset or be placed in a control group without them, with the latter group receiving glasses at the end. The investigators will collect data at baseline, then one and two years in, to evaluate the impact that having – or not having – glasses has had on participants by looking at household spending, quality of life, employment, work productivity and income.
Operation Eyesight’s role is to identify patients to enrol in the study in Kenya – and to continue managing patients with other eye health problems that don’t meet the parameters of the study. Participants will be selected from Kisii County, where we’re already running community eye health programs.
Senior Program Manager Edwin Wanjala Simiyu is overseeing Operation Eyesight’s participation in the study.
“Operation Eyesight was selected to work on this study because of our historical engagement with Peek Vision, with whom we’ve successfully implemented several projects,” he explains, referring to our longtime partner who created the eye health technology that will be used to gather data for the study.
He adds that the study is helping us foster important new collaborations. “Partnerships bring on board new ideas that shape project implementation and impact. It also reduces the project unit cost due to shared responsibilities.”
Gathering evidence on the effectiveness and economic impact of eye health treatments – such as a simple, low-cost pair of reading glasses – helps us demonstrate to decision makers how they can improve lives and livelihoods through cost-effective solutions.
Using our insights to advocate for eye health care
Members of our international team are frequently invited to sit down with various government agencies to offer their knowledge – sharing lessons hard-learned through years of program delivery.
In Kenya, while focusing on the Universal Eye Health Coverage agenda, we worked with the ministry of health to review the World Health Organization’s Primary Eye Care Training manual to better standardize primary eye care delivery nationwide, while in Ghana, we participated in a joint press conference hosted by that country’s ministry of health ahead of World Sight Day.
In addition, we are increasingly being called upon to act as technical partners, where we share our expertise on creating and managing sustainable eye health programs. Over the past few years, our team in India has worked closely with the health ministries of state governments in Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and, more recently, Meghalaya to establish vision care facilities within already-existing government health centres, such as Health and Wellness Centres.
Now, we’re looking to spread awareness in Canada, where our head office is located, though our involvement in the National Strategy for Eye Care Act. The act, passed in November 2024, aims to provide equal access to eye health care services across Canada and to improve the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of eye conditions for all.
In Canada, vision care is covered by a complex framework of provincial and federal regulations, meaning that coverage varies widely between provinces and territories. For routine vision care – like eye exams and prescription eyeglasses – many Canadians need to pull from health insurance to cover the costs. Those who are uninsured may have to pay out of pocket. These inequities are what the act proposes to address.
Now, as the chair of the Canadian Eye Health Coalition, Operation Eyesight is helping shape the framework for the national strategy. That means meeting regularly with like-minded partners and policymakers to continue the important work of making eye health care more equitable and accessible across the country.
Global Director Kris Kelm says that we’re well poised to inform decisions because of our decades of experience delivering sustainable eye health programs.
“We have the opportunity to shape what the developing policy is going to look like and how it’s actually going to affect Canadians,” he says. “As a non-profit dedicated to eye health and ensuring equitable access for all – regardless of socioeconomic status – it’s critical that we’re part of the conversation.”
Operation Eyesight is also a proud member of IAPB, adding to the collective, global voice advocating for the prioritization of eye health. Next year, we will participate in the first ever Global Eye Health Summit, which will bring together governments, organizations and the private sector to foster collaboration and mobilize action.
Focusing on the future
As we continue to collect data from communities around the world, we’re not just measuring outcomes, we’re helping to shape them. Every survey completed and every study published brings us closer to a world where quality eye care is accessible to all.
Whether it’s through national studies, local program evaluations or global research collaborations, we remain committed to using data as a tool for change. As we keep pushing for fair and accessible eye health care around the world, we’re proud to build on the knowledge and trust we’ve earned from the communities we work with. After all, they’re the reason we do what we do – For All The World To See.
