Children at Cotalau School during Healthy eyes launch. Photo: Lucy Lee/FHFNZ

School children learn about healthy eyes in Timor-Leste

In February this year, Hollows NZ launched a pilot Healthy Eyes programme promoting simple steps to improve eye health at eight schools in Aileu, a mountainous region in the centre of Timor-Leste.
Hollows NZ operating theatre technician Belmerio Jeronimo tests a pupil’s vision during a screening at Cotalau Primary School. Photo courtesy Lucy Lee/FHFNZ
Hollows NZ operating theatre technician Belmerio Jeronimo tests a pupil’s vision during a screening at Cotalau Primary School. Photo courtesy Lucy Lee/FHFNZ

Working with local partner Fo Naroman Timor-Leste (Give Sight Timor-Leste) and the Timorese Ministries of Health and Education, Hollows NZ has developed nine key eye health messages spanning four subject areas:

  • hygiene;
  • nutrition; 
  • prevention of eye problems; and,
  • reducing the social stigma surrounding blind people and those who wear spectacles.  

Teachers in the participating schools have been trained to use specially designed activity books and promotional materials such as stickers and posters to reinforce these key messages.

The pilot in Aileu is being run alongside a Healthy Schools project set up by Plan International, an international development organisation that seeks to alleviate childhood poverty. 

Children at Maurusa School learn about preparing the soil for their nutrition garden. Photo: FHFNZ
Children at Maurusa School learn about preparing the soil for their nutrition garden. Photo: FHFNZ

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is also supporting the project and helping schools establish nutrition gardens.

Vicente Mendonca, Hollows NZ’s Healthy Eyes in Schools Project Officer notes “Children often learn by doing, and through this project they are learning techniques they can share with their families on how to grow vegetables that are good for their eyes. The children are enthusiastic, and the wider community has become involved in planting seeds and tending to the garden.”

The Healthy Eyes project is an important step for Hollows NZ, says Karen Hobday, Community Health Project Manager for Hollows NZ in Timor-Leste.

“It moves beyond delivering high quality eye services to the population to actually teaching communities how to prevent and identify potential eye problems, and how to seek treatment should they need it.”

The pilot, which includes vision-screening at participating schools, as well as activities within the school community, will conclude in September.  FHFNZ is working in partnership with the Timor-Leste Ministry of Education and hopes to incorporate elements of the pilot programme into the national curriculum.