Context
Indigenous communities represent approximately 896,917 people in Brazil and are located in remote and underserved areas. These areas have almost no access to eye care or ophthalmological services, which is why they are all the more affected by eye diseases. Uncorrected refractive errors or uncorrected cataracts are the leading causes of visual impairment or blindness worldwide.
Supported Project
In 2019-2020, L'OCCITANE Brazil and the Foundation supported the Associação Médicos da Floresta (AMDAF) for its project on cataract prevention in Brazilian indigenous communities. The project aimed to train ophthalmologists in Sao Paolo to carry out visual acuity tests in order to detect populations from Brazil's indigenous areas, which were particularly underserved. Patients who were found to have poor visual acuity due to cataract were operated on free of charge. They were also able to receive additional care if necessary at the nearest hospitals.
This supported project was part of the overall Amazonian Cataract Project which was created to offer appropriate training visual impairment and blindness screening to health coordinators at indigenous areas in Brasil so indigenous communities can have access to eye care and have quality life and social inclusion.
Some Figures
Budget 33,000 euros
Result 1,680 beneficiaries
