Humanitarian
Paediatric ophthalmology training in Africa through the Juba-Bournemouth VISION 2020 LINK
One of the aims of the College of Ophthalmology of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (COECSA) is to provide specialist ophthalmic training for practising ophthalmologists from its 11 member countries. A number of initiatives are enabling more ophthalmologists to undertake...
Sustainable prevention of blindness from diabetic retinopathy through prevention and control of diabetes mellitus – LINK partnership experience in Dominica
The Caribbean Diabetic Retinopathy Project (DR Caribbean) is a five-year project that aims to reduce blindness due to diabetic retinopathy (DR) across four Commonwealth countries: Belize, Dominica, Jamaica and St Lucia. The VISION 2020 LINKS Programme at the London School...
Strengthening capacity for ophthalmic research within three East African VISION 2020 LINKS – The Research Mentorship Workshop
Building capacity for ophthalmic research in low- and middle-income countries is an important aim of the VISION 2020 LINKS Programme. The International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has been working...
Diabetes and diabetic retinopathy: Changes in understanding of the disease over the last 25 years and how the UK is helping low-income countries tackle the challenges
Diabetes – a historical perspective Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease caused by inherited and / or acquired deficiency in production of insulin by the pancreas, or by the ineffectiveness of the insulin produced. Such a deficiency results in...
Volunteer abroad: the Khmer Sight Foundation
A team of volunteers describe their experiences of working with the Khmer Sight Foundation in Cambodia. Cambodia has a population of 15 million people, of whom an estimated 300,000 are blind. This figure is increasing by 10,000 each year. Three-quarters...
South-South collaboration for the treatment of avoidable blindness in Botswana
This article describes the value of South-South collaboration in the reduction of avoidable blindness. Specifically it describes a South-South collaboration between India and Botswana that evolved out of the VISION 2020 LINK between Cambridge University Hospitals, two institutions in India...
Building research capacity through the VISION 2020 LINKS Programme
The aim is to build capacity for research in the region covered by the College of Ophthalmology of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (COECSA). The project will build research capacity in three ophthalmology training institutions by ‘training the trainers’ and...
Leadership skills training through the COECSA-RCOphth LINK
The Lead Forward project was an initiative of the VISION 2020 LINKS Programme, funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) via the Tropical Health Education Trust (THET). It aimed to improve the quality of medical leadership within VISION 2020...
Infection prevention and control through a VISION 2020 LINK between Mombasa and Southampton
The authors share how a partnership between Mombasa and Southampton has enabled Kenyan healthcare professionals from four institutions to innovate and work as a group to improve infection prevention and control. Infection prevention and control (IPC) is a cornerstone of...
Tackling diabetic retinopathy globally through the VISION 2020 LINKS Diabetic Retinopathy Network
It is abundantly clear that the burden of diabetes is rapidly increasing, as there are now 415 million adults with diabetes in the world, with a projected rise to 642 million by 2040 [1]. This equates to 1 in 10...
New Flying Eye Hospital takes to the skies for its first programme
In June of this year, international eye care charity Orbis launched their new Flying Eye Hospital, a powerful tool helping the medical community combat preventable blindness through sustainable methods. On board an MD-10 aircraft, a fully accredited ophthalmic facility can...
Paediatric ophthalmology training in Malawi through the Vision 2020 LINKS Programme: a decade of partnership
Blinding eye disease in children can lead to a lifetime of dependence and non-productivity for the person afflicted. Sometimes a relatively simple condition such as a refractive error can lead to irreversible disability that could, if caught in time, have...
