GB Govt, Sightsavers Sign LoU

GILGIT, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2023 ) :Government of Gilgit Baltistan and Sightsavers on Monday signed the Letter of Understanding (LoU).

Sightsavers is an International Development Organization working in 33 countries to eradicate avoidable blindness and promote the rights of people with disabilities. Sightsavers is in Pakistan since 1985 and has helped government and other partner hospitals to examine more than 80 million eye care patients and has supported more than 0.7 million cataract surgeries.

Furthermore, to combat childhood blindness, Sightsavers has trained 40,000 schoolteachers to screen children in schools.

This has led to screening of more than 2 million children in Pakistan for eye health problems, mainly refractive errors, the main cause of school dropouts and compromised learning outcomes.

Sightsavers has provided more than 140,000 eyeglasses free of cost to those children who were identified with weak eye sight.

Sightsavers, in furtherance of its commitment in Gilgit-Baltistan, is willing to support the project of "School Eye Health Screening" in Gilgit Baltistan.

Under this project, Sightsavers will screen the school-going children in Gilgit-Baltistan for common eye problems, provide free spectacles for children with refractive error and also surgical treatment in partnership with the department of health.

Sightsavers will also provide ophthalmic screening equipment for the screening team.

Furthermore, Sightsavers has also penned down its commitment to the establishment of a Low Vision and IT Resource Center in Special education Complex, Gilgit Baltistan.