KISORO :Over 400 People in Nyakabande Sub-County Benefit from Eye Screening Initiative

 

Over 400 residents of Nyakabande sub-county, on Saturday 4 October  benefited from eye screenings and treatments provided by optometrists from Makerere University, in partnership with MedOptics Center in Kampala.

The initiative was organized by the Imbabazi Center for Women and Children (ICWAC), a nonprofit founded in 2013 in Kisoro District. ICWAC's core mission is to support the education of orphans and vulnerable children while empowering women through income-generating activities that enhance household income and food security.

The organization directly supports the education of 58 children and indirectly assists 180 more through economic empowerment projects for caregivers, including agricultural initiatives and small business enterprises such as soap making and commercial agriculture, alongside Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs).

In a typical Ugandan household, families often have four to five children or more.

ICWAC can only support one or, in extreme cases, two children per household.

 By economically empowering caregivers, ICWAC aims to enable them to support the education of children who are not enrolled in the program.

Additionally, ICWAC recently completed a Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) project in Nyakabande, constructing a 5-cubic meter reservoir tank that supplies water by gravity to six public water standpipes (PSPs) across three villages in Gisorora Parish. This initiative currently provides clean drinking water to about 10,000 people.

Mrs. Robbinah Hakiza, founder and director of ICWAC, explained that the idea for the eye screening outreach arose after concerns were raised about declining class grades among the children.

 The ICWAC team and sponsors suspected that undiagnosed eye ailments could be contributing to these academic challenges, often unrecognized by caregivers who may not be able to afford eye care. This pilot project will be evaluated each term based on improvements in the academic performance of children identified with vision problems who received treatment.