Effective school eye health programmes are a critical part of any health system. Addressing eye health problems in childhood can have a powerful positive effect on an individual’s chance of educational success, prosperity and well-being.
To plan, fund, and implement effective school eye health programmes, health service personnel need to understand the prevalence and characteristics of eye health problems in the populations they serve. This has proven to be difficult using existing tools.
The School Eye Health Rapid Assessment (SEHRA) tool is the first planning tool dedicated to providing school eye health programmes with comprehensive data needed to allocate scarce resources and guide programme implementation. In addition to enabling those who plan, implement, and monitor school eye health services to better understand school-aged children's eye health needs, SEHRA provides the capacity to meet those needs.
Rapid sampling will provide accurate data on eye health problems among school-aged children. In addition to creating more effective eye health programs, this data can inform funding decisions and health campaigns.
Peek developed the tool with the support of the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and an advisory group of leading eye health organizations. As a result of funding from USAID's Child Blindness Program, development and validation were made possible. As a result, more school eye screenings are within reach.
The first version of this tool includes the following features:
For further enquiries about The School Eye Health Rapid Assessment, contact [email protected].
36 million people worldwide are blind. Four in five of them could keep their sight with simple surgery or treatment. Millions more can't see clearly, yet need no more than a simple pair of glasses. We won't stop until everyone has been linked to the treatment and services they need.
