Guwahati: The SPECS Project of World Health Organization will soon be implemented in Assam.
This significant project, making WHO’s inaugural initiative in Southeast Asia, will be launched in technical collaboration of WHO, National Health Mission-Government of India, Government Assam and Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya, Guwahati, Assam.
In this context, a workshop has been arranged on 21st and 22nd November 2024. The upcoming workshop will see participation from Country Head of WHO, Senior Officers from WHO HQ, Geneva and South East Asia Office, Key officials from the Govt. of India and the Govt. of Assam as well as prominent leaders of India in Community and Preventive Ophthalmology, and the members of the Global SPECS network.
Together an action plan will be devised for the successful rollout of this pioneering community based public health initiative. As a pilot phase, the project will initially focus on saturating refractive care services in three focus districts: Kamrup (Rural), Morigaon and Nagaon. Different Government departments will align to facilitate the project implementation. The service delivery model “Integrated People-Centered Eye Care”, will be based on Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya’ s community service framework and is envisioned to serve as a prototype model within WHO’s global initiatives.
SSDN has partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) to implement the SPECS 2030 project (Strengthening Provision of Eye Care Services) in Assam. This is WHO’s first project at this scale in Southeast Asia. The project aims to address the urgent need to combat refractive errors, the leading cause of vision impairment globally, affecting over 2.2 billion people, of which at least 800 million have conditions that could be simply corrected with reading glasses. Alarmingly, only 36% of individuals with refractive errors currently have access to appropriate spectacles, leaving a significant majority underserved, particularly in low and middle income regions. This lack of access not only impairs quality of life but also imposes a massive economic burden, with vision-related productivity losses estimated at $411 billion annually.
The collaboration marks WHO’s first direct engagement with a local Southeast Asian organization, underscoring a united commitment to health equity and universal access.
The WHO-funded workshop which is to be held on 21st and 22nd November 2024 will bring together the Country Head of WHO, senior officials from WHO HQ, Geneva, and the South-East Asia Office, alongside key representatives from the Government of India, the Government of Assam, leaders in Community and Preventive Ophthalmology and members of the Global SPECS network. The stakeholders will collaborate to devise an action plan for the rollout of SSDN’s ground-breaking public health initiative on a global scale.
SSDN innovated and adopted a community-centric approach which facilitated grassroots-level screening and transportation to base hospitals, shouldering the entire treatment cost for patients. However, recognizing the limitations of opportunistic outreach services, particularly in terms of spectacle delivery, coverage and post-surgery monitoring, SSDN pivoted towards a hospital-based community eye care program through its Sonapur pilot project. This innovative initiative included village adoption, enumeration, and screening, aiming to cover 100% of the population in adopted villages.
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