Qualified refraction services are made available in Dong Nai province through Orbis-OnSemi Conductor project

Recent statistics estimate about 36 million people in Vietnam are living with refractive error (RE - including myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia). Among this group, three million children are visually impaired due to refractive errors and require glasses. Despite this great need, only 10% of people with refractive errors have access to quality refraction care due to a largely absent service.

In Dong Nai Province alone, approximately 250,000 adults and nearly 240,000 children are estimated to have RE. It means a great deal of people are now in need of refraction services, while poor availability of the needed refraction services in Dong Nai has forced patients either travel to Ho Chi Minh city for eye examinations or rely on local private optical shops of whom service quality might remain a question.

Untreated conditions leading to childhood blindness and visual impairments have critical consequences on individuals, families, and society, with long-term impacts on quality of life, education, independence, and productivity.

After three years of implementation, in late December 2022 project "Good sight, Good life" was successfully completed contributing to protecting eye health and fighting blindness for children in particular and communities in general in Dong Nai province, Vietnam.

Some of the key achievements under the project are:

• Establishment of a Vision Center at Dong Nai General Hospital that has hosted 80,474 patient visits for vision screening and examination.
• Screening and examination of refractive errors for 75,047 people.
• Prescription of 14,587 eyeglasses and provision of 1,508 free eyeglasses for students with disadvantaged circumstances and school staff/ teachers, including 98% to children and 55.3% to women and girls.
• Provision of refraction training and glass-griding for 1 ophthalmologist, 4 nurses and training on vision screening for 177 teachers and school health staff.
• Generating demand for refraction services in community thanks to school based campaigns.
• Formulation of a public - private partnership and referral network for refraction services and eyeglasses provision among schools, hospitals, private optical shops and eye clinics in Dong Nai province so that local children and people with eye problems are examined and treated.Improvement of community awareness on protecting eye health and regular eye check via free-eyeglasses provision ceremony, drawing competition, and distribution of posters and large-sized communication banners among 34 project schools.

Pediatric eye care is one of Orbis’s four principal priorities over the next five years, along with community-led primary eye care, capacity building and enhancement and cross-cutting areas. Currently, Orbis is working on another refraction project to integrate vision screening into annual health check-up for school children in Can Tho City. We are also expecting official approvals from the local authorities to expand our refraction intervention to Hoa Binh and Nam Dinh provinces this year.