SEHRA launch: Revolutionising school eye health programmes

Effective school eye health programmes are a critical part of any health system. Addressing eye health problems in childhood can have a powerful positive effect on an individual’s chance of educational success, prosperity and well-being.

To plan, fund, and implement effective school eye health programmes, health service personnel need to understand the prevalence and characteristics of eye health problems in the populations they serve. This has proven to be difficult using existing tools.

The School Eye Health Rapid Assessment (SEHRA) tool is the first planning tool dedicated to providing school eye health programmes with comprehensive data needed to allocate scarce resources and guide programme implementation. In addition to enabling those who plan, implement, and monitor school eye health services to better understand school-aged children’s eye health needs, SEHRA provides the capacity to meet those needs.

Rapid sampling will provide accurate data on eye health problems among school-aged children. In addition to creating more effective eye health programs, this data can inform funding decisions and health campaigns.

Peek developed the tool with the support of the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and an advisory group of leading eye health organizations. As a result of funding from USAID’s Child Blindness Program, development and validation were made possible.

The first version of this tool includes the following features:

• A rigorous, evidence-based methodology to enable rapid, accurate assessment of children’s eye health needs in a given region is designed for use in all resource settings.
• Information gathered can also be used to improve eye health awareness, planning and funding decisions.
• A fully digital tool that is part of the Peek Vision eye health platform.
• Other elements, such as referral pathways and optical supply chain characteristics, will be added in due course.

For further enquiries about the School Eye Health Rapid Assessment, contact [email protected]

Image on top: A group of students happily sitting in their class enjoying learning with healthy vision/King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital