August 2022 Newsletter

This month we are excited to open the registration for our hybrid annual meeting, celebrate the recognition of our Vice President and two of our active faculty advisers from Mexico and Ghana with awards, share reports from our chapters addressing promotion, prevention and multi-stakeholder coordination to serve vulnerable communities, we say thank you to OGS, our President reflects on integrated people’s eye care and much more.

Enjoy this issue and we hope to see you in San Diego in October.

President's Insights

The last few years have taught us that the world is rapidly changing and it is vital to adapt to new situations. The evolving philosophy of humanitarian health care is embracing the idea that care must be based on what is best for the people being served and humanitarian eye care is striving to integrate ocular and vision care into the overall health system.

Read the article here

Registration is open for our Annual Meeting

This year our event focuses on our commitment to bringing vision for all. We will showcase the diverse contribution of our chapters and partners to this important goal. Do not miss the chance to meet fellow VOSHers in person or online.

All information can be found here or visit our website

Registration Zoom October 29th Session

Registration Zoom October 30th Session

and do not forget to participate in out 50th celebration video project.

We encourage all US and international VOSH and SVOSH chapters to participate. It takes less than 2 minutes.

Find all the information here.

Celebrating the success of our members

Congratulations Hector, Kwadwo and Beatriz

Hector Santiago, OD, PhD, FAAO, vice president of VOSH/International receives the 2022 AAO Brien Holden Humanitarian Award

We are proud to share the news that our vice president Dr, Hector Santiago has been awarded the 2022 American Academy of Optometry Brien Holden Humanitarian Award. He will receive his award at the AAO meeting in October. Read the AAO's release here.

Congratulations Hector!!

2022 George Britton Early Investigator of the Year Award

Dr. Kwadwo Owusu Akuffo, Senior Lecturer and Head of Department, Optometry and Visual Science, College of Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and faculty adviser of our SVOSH-KNUST chapter has been awarded the 2022 George Britton Early Investigator of the Year Award at the Brain and Ocular Nutrition (BON) Conference held in Downing College, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Read more about this recognition here and get to know about Dr Akuffo’s work at our annual meeting.

Vision Monday’s 2022 Most Influential Women in Optical

Optometrist Beatriz E. Gomez Serna, coordinator of the optometry program at the Universidad Autónoma de La Laguna, Mexico and faculty adviser of our SVOSH-UAL chapter has been recognized by Vision Monday’s 2022 Most Influential Women in optical in the category mentors. Beatriz is inspired to see how the students develop into the future optometrists they will become and is there to ensure they enjoy the support they need. Beatriz is the first Latin American receiving this recognition. Read more about the award here. Felicidades Beatriz.

Insights into VOSH humanitarian clinics

Read these wonderful reports highlighting the collaborative work, promotion and education as part of prevention and multi-stakeholder coordination to reach those most vulnerable such as refugees in the US, vulnerable women and the elderly in Colombia or rural communities in Honduras. Thank you VOSH-AZ, SVOSH-FunAndina-Colombia and SVOSH-NSUOCO.

SVOSH-NSUOCO at the Northeastern State University Oklahoma College of Optometry organized a successful clinic in Roatan, Honduras seeing 730 patients and over 60 referrals for cataracts, glaucoma and others. Their partnership with local Clinica Esperanza ensures patient care after the chapter returns to the US. Read their report here.

SVOSH-FunAndina in Colombia organized a clinic to see women in situation of vulnerability in collaboration with the faculty of odontology and the Colombian Secretary of Social and Political Development. Read the report here.

This article focuses on the work of the "Salud Visual para Todos" (Vision for All) program. During the pandemic the program innovated to ensure education for good eye health and on non communicable diseases continued as the work done to serve very vulnerable segments of the population in Pereira, Colombia. Read the article here.

VOSH-Arizona organized a humanitarian clinic for refugees settled in Tucson, AZ in coordination with the IRC (International Rescue Committee) in AZ. The clinic saw 191 refugees from 22 countries. Read the whole report here. To protect the identity and safety of the refugees there were no pictures of them taken.

Thanks Optometry Giving Sight

We are excited to announce that we received a $85k grant from OGS to support our projects in 2023. We are very grateful for the support and trust of this loyal donor.

Help OGS help others see the world and support the World Sight Day Challenge this year.

We need your help finding a manual lathe

We are looking for a gas permeable contact lens manual lathe to set up a lab in Ghana at the KNUST School of optometry. This donation would be very helpful to make progress in fitting contact lenses in Africa. Please let us know if you know of any available manual lathes for donation. For more details contact us at vosh@vosh.org. Thank you.

US chapters: for your humanitarian clinics

Maui Jim sunglasses and frames

Our partners at Maui Jim have again donated over 4900 sunglasses and 2300 optical frames to VOSH/International. VOSH and SVOSH chapters in good standing can request them from our Technology Transfer Programme. Chapters will need to cover shipping costs and the necessary packaging materials.

These are on first come first served basis. Please read the terms and conditions here and you can make your request here.

Lenses from Zeiss

Zeiss is offering Anti-Reflective coated finished-single vision lenses in plus and minus powers for US VOSH chapters to use in their humanitarian clinics. They will ship them to you. If you are interested in this offer, please send an email to vosh@vosh.org with the subject line Zeiss lenses so we can share the inventory and application link your chapter needs to complete.

News from our partners

Join the #LoveYourEyes Global Campaign

IAPB officially launched its global campaign #LoveYourEyes to raise awareness of the socio-economic importance of eye health. The campaign calls on governments, businesses, and decision makers to make eye health accessible, available, and affordable to everyone by 2030. This year, IAPB wants to reach a 5 million eye sight test target. As a member of IAPB, VOSH/International supports this campaign. Send IAPB the estimate number of people you will reach because of World Sight Day screenings in October. You can find out more here. Participate, enjoy and make a difference.

Myopia control attitudes and practice survey

The World Council of Optometry is collaborating with the International Myopia Institute to promote the IMI “Myopia Control Attitudes and Practice” survey.

The survey takes only five minutes to complete but can give us a wealth of information to combat the global myopia epidemic. The report is expected in early 2023.

Publications

Eye care in health systems: guide for action

The World Health Organization (WHO) developed this manual for health planners. The Guide outlines strategies and approaches proposed by WHO that provide practical, step-by-step support to governments in the planning and implementation of integrated people-centered eye care (IPEC). The Guide can help us understand what is required to ensure eye care planning and our contribution to it. You can download the document here.

Integrated people-centred eye care advocacy to action toolkit

The Integrated People-centred Eye Care Advocacy to Action Toolkit is expected to guide and support eye health advocates around the world to achieve the implementation of IPEC in countries. Download the toolkit here