This project is supported by the L'Occitane en Provence Foundation.
Context
Accessing eye health care is challenging for many communities in Burkina Faso. Eye care services are insufficient and unequally distributed around the country; there is a shortage of essential eye health care workers, equipment and consumables; and there is a lack of information among the population about eye diseases and the treatments available. Consequently, thousands of people in Burkina Faso are at risk of blindness from preventable and treatable causes. To tackle these challenges, Sightsavers’ and Light for the World have been implementing eye health projects in Cascades region, since 2022 and 2018 respectively.
Supported Project
In 2024-2025, the L'Occitane en Provence Foundation supported a project building on Sigthsavers and Light for the Wolrd's existing eye health programmes in the Cascades region.
This collaboration between Light for World and Sightsavers seeks to fortify the primary eye care system and its integration into the primary health care system. The national and regional eye health partners are also helped in their efforts to develop a structured and integrated process for collecting and reporting eye health data. In doing so, the data needed for improved planning can be generated while enabling a monitoring of the eye health system.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and local partners, Light for the World and Sightsavers's work on the ground aims to:
- improve geographical and financial access to eye health care for the general population and children in particular.
- improve eye health's prevention, information and awareness raising activities to encourage eye health seeking behavior, especially among children and vulnerable population.
- ensure the availability of qualified human resources for eye healt, at the national, regional and district levels.
- increase the provision of eye care services for children in quantity and quality.
Some Figures
Budget 200,000 euros
Goal 16,000 children screened in schools
Goal 3,400 people screened in communities
Goal 414 volunteers trained in vision screening
Photo credits: ©Sightsavers, ©Light for the World.
