Eye Health Hero: Grace Mwangi

Grace is the lead for Peek Vision’s Community and School Eye Health Programmes in Zimbabwe and Tanzania that currently connect 65 health facilities and have reached more than 70,000 people to date. She is an experienced Public Health professional with over eight years’ experience in designing, implementing and managing eye health projects across sub-Saharan Africa. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with governments, local and international NGOs, private sector players and various multi-national donor agencies including USAID, European Commission and the UK’s Department for International Development, on projects geared towards eliminating avoidable blindness. She holds a Masters degree in Public Health (MPH) from University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Since joining Peek, Grace has taken on increasing responsibility for managing School and Community Eye Health programmes in two countries, ensuring that Peek technology and tools are being used as effectively as possible to break down barriers to eye care. She also shows leadership in developing new, innovative, ways of working to ensure the know-how Peek has developed can be disseminated effectively through partner organisations globally.

Grace has an incredible skill set and invaluable experience of bringing together multi-disciplinary groups of stakeholders to engage and align to strengthen eye health programmes, as well as building ownership and engagement across a diverse set of actors that range from NGOs, governments, health professional bodies and funders.

Grace is continuously developing her skills and abilities, placing her at the centre of many of Peek’s impact expansion plans.

She has guided Peek’s partners through the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing direction and leadership to successfully launch new programmes remotely as well as effectively adapting existing programmes, always while maintaining high standards of design, training and support.

She is without doubt a competent and inspiring leader today, who will continue to become an even more outstanding eye health leader of the future.

“What drives me every day is the opportunity to make an impact and to see people’s lives change because of a simple intervention – to bring sight to someone who never knew they could see again. I am continuously learning, and I have learned the vital importance of involving stakeholders at every step of the process. Even with a very successful programme, if there is no buy-in from the people you want to own it, then it will not be sustainable. It gives me great satisfaction that partners, donors, stakeholders and everyone at Peek are contributing to this mission together.”

– Grace Mwangi