The beginning of 2018 for IAPB WPRO has included a round of workshops and membership meetings. During 2017, our membership consultation elicited key priorities right across the region. These have helped us develop a strategy for 2018, narrowing down our focus to the themes you, our members, have highlighted. In order to ensure that these…
The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ (FHFNZ) is recruiting a Clinical Quality Assurance Coordinator to join their Auckland-based programme team. Reporting to the Programme Director, this is a newly created position. The Clinical Quality Assurance Coordinator will support the Pacific eye care workforce to deliver services in a safe and appropriate manner, working towards their key…
To fulfil the mission of poverty reduction through reducing avoidable visual impairment and facilitating rehabilitation for people with unavoidable visual impairment in Cambodia. Caritas Takeo Eye Hospital (CTEH), has been working for 20 years to improve community awareness of eye health issues and to advocate to policy makers for implementation of the national strategic plan…
Kudos to the team at CBM in Papua New Guinea who launched the Goroka Hospital Eye Clinic Operating Theatre on World Sight Day. Pictured here is Dr Geoffrey Wabulembo speaking at the launch. The event was funded by the hospital – another example of well-forged partnerships in action.
3 days of free eye testing in Cambodia – what a brilliant way to bring all of the stakeholders together in the drive to eliminate avoidable blindness. A perfect example of partnerships in action.
With Vision Atlas launches taking place across the Western Pacific Region, the team from Shanghai Eye Disease Treatment and Prevention Centre (SEDTPC) decided this was a great opportunity to highlight the growing burden of myopia in China. Dr Jianfeng Zhu, Director of Division of Preventive Ophthalmology noted how pleasing it is to see that the…
Across the South Pacific, members of the eye health fraternity have taken the opportunity of this year’s World Sight Day – Make Vision Count – to launch the Vision Atlas. As a repository of data and advocacy tool the Atlas is particularly important in these far-flung, often remote island nations. Sister Savelina, Diabetic Retinopathy Nurse…
Dr Anthea Burnett (BHVI) Dr Jambi Garap (PNG) Amanda Davis, Marleen Nelisse (FHFNZ) Dr Ana Cama (PacEyes) Dr Mundi Qalo (Pacific Eye Institute) Drew Keys. During June, PacEyes held its bi-annual conference in Suva, Fiji. With participants from across the South Pacific and from a variety of eye health disciplines, the two-day event lived up…
Amanda Davis is the Chairperson of International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), Western Pacific as well as the Chief Executive Officer of the Brien Holden Vision Institute, Public Health. Since 2006, Amanda has overseen the growth of the Institute’s public health division to where it has assisted the development of eye care services in…
Drew Keys, IAPB Western Pacific‘s new Regional Coordinator, has degrees in Law and Asian Studies and a background working in retail management. For the past six years, Drew has lived in-and-out of Papua New Guinea, managing PNG Eye Care as well as PNG and Pacific programmes for the Brien Holden Vision Institute. He has coordinated…
Dr Andreas Mueller has returned to supporting the Eye Health programme at the WHO Office of the Western Pacific Region. The objective of the programme is to work with countries in accelerating the implementation of “Towards Universal Eye Health: A Regional Action Plan for the Western Pacific Region (2014-2019)”. Andreas will provide technical support on…
IAPB would like to welcome three new Group C members to our coalition, Conselho Brasileiro De Oftalmologia – CBO, Pushpagiri Vitreo Retina Institute and Japan National Society for the Prevention of Blindness. Conselho Brasileiro De Oftalmologia – CBO joined IAPB in April. Founded in 1941, the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology (CBO) is a scientific and cultural…
Pictured (from L to R): Chief Ophthalmologist, Dr Simon Melengas; Dr Goa Tau, Director Medical Services (NDoH), Deputy Secretary of Health, Dr Paison Dakulala; PBL President, Dr Jambi Garap and Dr Bieb, Director Disease Control (NDoH). “It was tough”, PNG Eye Care General Manager, Samuel Koim, explained, presenting the logistic of the PNG Rapid Assessment…
At Seeing is Believing (SiB), we are always keen to find innovative ways to share learning from SiB projects and build networks between partners. Based on the success of our webinars held in 2016, we decided to continue this exciting learning opportunity. In April 2017 we held webinars on the theme of sustainability. The aims of…
Last week, Amanda Davis facilitated a workshop in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with local stakeholders to develop a human resource strategy for eye health. Partners at the meeting included RANZCO, VISION 2020 Australia, LCIF to name a few. It also included PNG Eye Care Centre’s President Dr Jambi Garap, the first woman ophthalmologist in PNG…
In our fourth blog for World Glaucoma Week, James Muecke, an Ophthalmologist, an IAPB Eye Health Hero and Chairman for Sight For All, writes about the need for training for glaucoma in Asia, highlighting what they are doing. James Muecke AM teaching fellows Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and over half of the…
Screening for trachoma in Papua New Guinea Through strong collaborations and evidence, several governments in the Western Pacific can now claim trachoma is no longer a public health problem. For many more, trachoma elimination is in sight. So where are we with trachoma in the Western Pacific? A national assessment of trachoma conducted in Lao…
The Regional Action Plan for Universal Eye Health in the Western Pacific urges governments to ensure that “essential eye-care, low vision and rehabilitation services are included in national health financing approaches for universal health coverage” and calls on international partners to advocate for coverage of eye-care services by insurance schemes.
Great ideas shared on eye health for women in girls at our regional forum in Cambodia The Global Burden of Disease study shows 60% of global blindness is among women, and recent surveys in the Western Pacific show an even greater imbalance in some areas. As Universal Eye Health: A Global Action Plan 2014-19 prioritises “equity” as its first…
To say the last 12 months have been disappointing for the Australian aid sector is a gross understatement. The Australian Government’s May Federal Budget delivered the biggest single-year cut to foreign aid in Australia’s history, a move that has undoubtedly hurt the country’s international reputation. The Budget revealed $1 billion–20 per cent of Australia’s current…
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