Dear Friends,

The Prevention of Blindness Union (PBU) –a conglomerate of international non- governmental and developmental organizations working on eye care in Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) and Africa wishes to announce the launching of its quarterly newsletter.

The newsletter will highlight the activities of the union and also that of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, EMR. It will be distributed to all stakeholders involved in eye care in the EMR, Africa regions and elsewhere.

We hope you will find this newsletter informative and useful.

PBUnion

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The International Council of Ophthalmology has recently awarded Dr. Adel AlRushood with the GOH Naumann Award for Leadership and Global Eye Care. The GOH Naumann Award is awarded annually to an ophthalmologist who has made a significant contribution to global eye care in the community, in an effort to promote educational programs and establish service models for other societies.

The first project in this partnership will be conducted in collaboration with East Africa College of Ophthalmology (EACO) to upgrade training facilities and resources for residency training in ophthalmology at Muhimbili University of Health Sciences, Tanzania. This project fits into the strategic interest of PBU in strengthening the training and practice of ophthalmology in Africa.

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Dr. Ahmed Trabelsi, President of Nadi AlBassar , and a board member of PBU has been honored with the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO’s) International Blindness Prevention Award. The award is presented at the Academy's Annual Meeting each fall. The International Blindness Prevention Award, established in 1992, honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the prevention of blindness or restoration of sight worldwide. PBU would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr. Trabelsi on this great achievement.

The first project in this partnership will be conducted in collaboration with East Africa College of Ophthalmology (EACO) to upgrade training facilities and resources for residency training in ophthalmology at Muhimbili University of Health Sciences, Tanzania. This project fits into the strategic interest of PBU in strengthening the training and practice of ophthalmology in Africa.

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The Prevention of Blindness Union (PBU) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the UK based international NGO- Sightsavers International (SSI). The MOU is for partnership and cooperation in supporting eye care programs in Africa. It will involve advocacy, fund-raising, policy dialogue, exchange of expertise and co-implementation of eye care activities. The MOU was signed during the recent IAPB board of Trustees meeting in Cairo on 17 March 2010. The Chairman of PBU HRH Abdulaziz Ahmed Al Saud signed on behalf of the union, while CEO SSI Caroline Harper signed on behalf of SSI.

The first project in this partnership will be conducted in collaboration with East Africa College of Ophthalmology (EACO) to upgrade training facilities and resources for residency training in ophthalmology at Muhimbili University of Health Sciences, Tanzania. This project fits into the strategic interest of PBU in strengthening the training and practice of ophthalmology in Africa.

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The Prevention of Blindness Union held its fourth board meeting on 1 March 2010, at the Marriot Hotel Riyadh, K.S.A. It was Chaired by HRH Abdulaziz Ahmed Abdulaziz Al Saud, and attended by all founding partners. The board had a full agenda, it ratified decisions made in the previous meeting including the Strategic and Operational plans, proposed 5-year budget and activities for the first year of operation . The meeting also discussed collaborative and fundraising activities that the PBU intends to initiate and participate in. The board approved the newly designed logo, website and a quarterly electronic newsletter.

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The Prevention of blindness Union (PBU) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health Jordan will be implementing a diabetic retinopathy screening programme in Northern Jordan..

The Project is one of the ‘Seeing is Believing’ (SiB) project of the Standard Chartered Bank, to which the bank is committing close to 1 million dollars over 5 years. The Ministry of Health Jordan with its good networks of health facilities and human resources is the implementing partner. The project plans to provide a comprehensive diabetic retinopathy care to all patients with Diabetic mellitus in the region. This will include health education, promotion, screening, treatment and rehabilitative services.

A PBU delegation had visited Jordan in January 2010 to assess resources for the project and seek commitment of the Jordanian government in this project. The delegation met with major stakeholders including the Jordanian Minister of Health.

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The EMR-IAPB in collaboration with the Syrian Ministry of Health had organized a RAAB training workshop for ophthalmologists from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

The workshop was held at the Eye specialist hospital Damascus from 1- 4 May. It was attended by 15 ophthalmologists from the 3 countries including National coordinators for the prevention of blindness.

The opening ceremony of the workshop was attended by the Syrian Minister of Health -Dr Riad Said, the Executive Co-Chair EMR-IAPB- Dr Abdulaziz AlRajhi and the Co-Chair EMR-IAPB – Dr. Mohammed Alamuddin.

The four day workshop was facilitated by RAAB trainers-Dr M Mansur Rabiu from the EMR-IAPB office, Saudi Arabia and Dr. M. Zahid Jadoon from Pakistani Institute of Community Ophthalmology (PICO) Pakistan.

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The Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (EMR-IAPB) with the support of IMPACT –EMR a regional NGO hosted the committees and board of trustees meetings of IAPB at the Intercontinental Hotel City stars Cairo, Egypt from 15-18 March, 2010.

The first two days were dedicated to committees meetings while the board meeting was held in the last two days. The opening ceremony of the board meeting was attended by the Assistant Director General of WHO Dr Ala Alwan and a representative of the WHO EMRO Regional Director.

The Chair EMR-IAPB HRH Abdulaziz Ahmed Abdulaziz Al Saud hosted a dinner for the board members during which the Chairman of the IAPB board Mr Christian Garms honored the Chair EMR-IAPB with a gift for his tremendous support to IAPB and eye care in general.

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The guidelines for School eye health for Eastern Mediterranean Region is now available free online. The guidelines address core issues on which programmes and countries worldwide can further develop and adapt according to their own environment and circumstances.

The guidelines were developed by experts in Refractive Errors and Low Vision, Child Eye Health, Health Systems Development, Community Ophthalmology, Pediatric Ophthalmology, Programme Managers, National Coordinators and Social Health Managers.

It was developed with the support of IMPACT-EMR, PBU and EMR-IAPB.

Click here to download a copy.

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The IMPACT EMR a partner organization of PBU and EMR-IAPB in conjunction with WHO – EMRO had developed recommendations for the public health control of Glaucoma in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR).

The recommendations were a product of 3 days workshop on Glaucoma public health control strategies in EMR. The workshop sponsored by IMPACT-EMR was held at the WHO EMRO office Cairo, Egypt from 14- 16 December 2009. Participants included international and regional experts in Glaucoma, public health ophthalmology, representatives of WHO EMRO, international and local NGOs in region, national coordinators for prevention of blindness from EMR, representatives of some tertiary institutions etc.

You can read the report of the workshop here.

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The WHO-EMR with the support of Ministry of health Libya and IMPACT EMR organized a RAAB training workshop in Tripoli Libya from 18-27 December 2009. The workshop facilitated by Dr. Mansur Rabiu of IMPACT-EMR and Dr. Abdulhanan Choudhury of WHO-EMRO, was held at the National Eye Hospital Tripoli, with field visits to rural districts. It was attended by 7 ophthalmologists and 4 nurses. The purpose of the training was for the team to conduct RAAB survey in the country.

Recently the trained team has just completed the RAAB survey across the four regions of the country.

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