RWANDA- A local Non Governmental Organization, Vision for a Nation, have organized basic training for a total of 986 health workers from various health centres across Rwanda in eye care treatment.

CEOAFRICA.com gathered that the function of the training is to launch the next phase where there will be increase in access to affordable eye care services.

Speaking about the development, Rose Gahire, the NGO’s country director said: "Initially, we had embarked on training at least two nurses from 450 health centres across the country. But by the time we finished, more health centres had been opened. We, therefore, need to train more,"

 According to statistics from the World Health Organisation, 95 per cent of people with eye problems in Sub-Saharan Africa have no access to affordable eye care services.

In the same vein, the NGO’s programme officer, Abdullah Uwihoreye, said the organisation wanted to fill the gap of eye services, especially at the grassroots.

"By the time we started working in Rwanda, there were no primary eye care services at the health centre level, so we partnered with the Ministry of Health to implement our programme.

"Currently, each health centre has at least two primary eye care nurses who are able to treat allergies, bacterial infections and can give glasses to patients who need them," he added. The organisation is currently working on their next phase of the programme, which is to ensure that primary eye care training is incorporated in the curriculum of the school of nursing.

"Rwanda has a high turnover of nurses and we cannot keep training all the time. What we have done is to train teachers in these schools and we are also negotiating to see that this basic training is incorporated in their curriculum," Uwihoreye added.

Over 33,000 glasses have been distributed by the NGO since it started operating in 2010, while it has trained three teachers from each nursing school to help them implement the programme successfully.