Over a billion global cases of vision impairment or blindness could have been avoided, says the World Health Organisation. The theme of this year’s global event “Love Your Eyes” aims to draw attention to eye health and care, which remains inaccessible to about half the world’s population.
“World Sight Day is a chance to remind ourselves how lucky we are to have access to a high standard of eye healthcare in Luxembourg. At the same time, it is a chance to raise awareness of the plight of others around the world without the excellent healthcare we have,” says former philanthropy advisor to the Banque de Luxembourg, LIST board member and now president of CBM Luxembourg Foundation Diane Wolter.
To commemorate the day on 13 October, the foundation will hold a conference presenting its activities to treat and prevent avoidable blindness in Angola, Laos and Madagascar. Archaeologist Fabienne Pietruk will speak on the symbolism and representation of the eye in archaeology, while other guest speakers--Nico Diederich, Frank Groben and Mark Schmid--will expatiate on the foundation’s activities in these countries. Presentations and discussions will be in English, French, German and Luxembourgish.
We need to pay attention to our sight… Especially as we spend a significant amount of time in front of our screens, [we ought to respect the 20-20-20 rule]…
Wolter says the support of family and board members helped establish the foundation, which was created last year in Luxembourg as part of a wider CBM group, which is present in several countries.
“We had to choose a specific theme as CBM covers a wide range of handicap [conditions] and we chose vision [as a theme of interest] and decided to focus our efforts on three countries in line with Luxembourg's cooperation strategy--which also targets health as the SDG3 objective,” explains Wolter.
Laos is part of Luxembourg’s seven partner countries for development cooperation, while Madagascar and Angola are among the UN’s list of least developed countries.
“When we look at the data by the WHO in 2019 that shows 2.2 billion people have vision impairment or blindness, of which over 1 billion cases could have been treated or avoided--all these figures challenge us, bearing in mind that a majority live in rural regions, are women, aged or live with a disability.”
MoU with local partner in Angola
Projects in Angola focus on on-site ophthalmology training in English and Portuguese languages with the aim of implementing similar trainings in Portuguese-speaking Mozambique and Cape Verde in the future. The Luxembourg foundation, which is solely responsible for this project, is in the process of developing an MoU with the National Ophthalmological Institute of Angola (IONA).
The foundation purchases equipments for thousands of cataract operations and facilitates the training of local doctors in anticipation of a multiplier effect that benefits the local communities in the short and long term. The annual budget for projects in the country in 2022 is estimated at €50,000.
Cataract surgeries are life-changing”
Collaboration with Swiss counterpart
The CBM Switzerland association is responsible for the children’s eye health project in Madagascar and an inclusive eye care project in Laos. By providing financial support, its Luxembourg counterpart aims to drive the implementation of the projects with a minimum estimated budget of €25,000 in Madagascar this year, which will go towards checking the eye health of people in rural areas. Together with local partners, the Madagascar project specifically aims to improve care for eye diseases in children and to set up regional eye health centres in the country. Activities in Laos focus specifically on improving inclusivity and access to quality eye care for the visually impaired and people living with other disabilities, with special attention paid to those in the countryside.
“We provide funds but also learn about their projects… There are also two [Swiss] representatives on our board and so we have good expert advice when making decisions, because these are not easy decisions to make--choosing the doctor, sending a team instead of training doctors abroad, buying equipment or consumables. [As] we have limited funds we have to make [these] choices and the advice we get is precious to us,” adds Wolter.
“We’re equally focusing on conception and [project] monitoring--not simply raising funds and sending abroad. That’s why the project in Angola means a lot to us,” says Wolter adding that a future ambition is to become a development NGO.
Raising awareness in Luxembourg
Last year, in collaboration with the special education school in Bertrange, the Centre pour le Développement des compétences relatives à la Vue (CDV), a bus where people could simulate the reality of living with cataracts for about three minutes was provided as part of awareness raising activities. 24 primary school classes in Luxembourg participated in this exercise alongside workshops. The foundation aims to repeat this exercise in 2023. CDV’s president Frank Groben also sits on the foundation’s board.
Following the CBM Luxembourg conference on World Sight Day, a second part of Fabienne Pietruk’s presentation will be examined during a separate conference at Hôpital Kirchberg on 20th October. Another session for health professionals will take place the same day. Prevention and screening stands will also be accessible to the public at the reception halls of the Hôpital Kirchberg and the Bohler clinic next to the hospital.
The CBM Luxembourg Foundation conference on 13 October begins at 6:30pm at the Banque de Luxembourg auditorium and will be streamed live. Address: 14, Boulevard Royal L-2449 Luxembourg. You can register or via email to [email protected].
This article forms part of a series uncovering the marks of Luxembourg abroad.