Commonwealth Leaders urged to prioritise school sight screenings

CC.
Commonwealth Health Ministers
Commonwealth Education Ministers
UK based Commonwealth High Commissioners
Baroness Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary General

Dear Commonwealth Leader,

We would like to pay tribute to the leadership of the Commonwealth in promoting eye health in the Commonwealth and around the world. In 2018 Commonwealth Leaders made a landmark commitment to ‘Quality Eye Care for All’ and in that time many countries around the Commonwealth have made progress, including Ghana and The Gambia which have eliminated trachoma as a public health problem.

Eliminating blinding trachoma across the Commonwealth would be a remarkable legacy However, the job on eliminating this debilitating neglected tropical disease is not complete, and we need to continue this fight. Eye health has long been a neglected public health issue, and with evidence to suggest that by 2050 half the world’s population will have myopia we are on the verge of a global crisis, especially among our young people. This growing crisis impacts all areas of our lives, from children in schools to those in work and our elderly population.

School eye health is of the utmost importance. A study of almost 1 million children across 30 low-income and middle-income countries found that children with vision impairment were 2 to 5 times less likely to be included in formal education.[1] Access to glasses or other forms of vision correction is also a huge challenge for many children. School eye health programs are a unique and highly cost-effective opportunity to provide comprehensive eye health services to potentially more than 700 million children throughout the world. The World Bank recommends prioritising the implementation of school eye health programs to ensure inclusive education systems and improve educational outcomes. Therefore, the Vision for the Commonwealth Coalition is calling on you, and other Commonwealth Heads of Government, to commit to universal access to sight screenings and affordable vision treatments when you meet in Kigali this week.

Countries including Rwanda, Pakistan, Tanzania, New Zealand, Botswana, Samoa, and the United Kingdom all have school eye health programmes. In order to avoid an impending eye health epidemic, Commonwealth leaders now need to ensure that every child in the Commonwealth has access to a sight screening and affordable treatment, so as many children as possible can see clearly.

Yours sincerely,

The Vision for the Commonwealth coalition

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