Newly trained eye nurses ready to fight blindness in Timor-Leste

This month six newly trained eye nurses are returning to their districts to start treating thousands of blind and vision impaired people in Timor-Leste, one of the world's poorest countries.

The nurses are the first to graduate from a new eye training course developed and implemented by The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ.

Called The Diploma of Eye Care, the new qualification was awarded to the eye nurses from the Instituto De Ciências De Saûde (ICS) on 22 August. 

The Diploma was delivered as a partnership between ICS and The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ, in response to the priorities set out in the Ministry of Health's National Eye Health Strategy.  Funding for the course was provided by the Silverton Foundation Inc, USA.

The nurses' training has been practical, giving the nurses the skills to help patients with the main causes of blindness and poor vision.  During their training the nurses worked at eye clinics in several districts and screened over 1800 school children in the capital, Dili.

"The training delivered in the Diploma of Eye Care was highly relevant to the most common eye problems in Timor-Leste. It also included topics like management and health promotion, to enable us to be the focal point for eye services in our districts.  With this training, I am confident that I can provide good quality eye care to the people in Baucau," said Nuno da Costa, a graduate from the district of Baucau on the northern coast.

As part of the partnership between The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ and the Ministry of Health to deliver high quality, appropriate eye care services to a population of nearly one million people, new eye clinics have been established at Centro Community Health Centre in Dili, as well as Maubisse and Baucau Hospitals, and Same and Ermera Community Health Centres.   

The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ also plans to build a new eye clinic at the National Hospital in Dili and is a partner with local NGO Fo Naroman Timor-Leste (literally Give Sight Timor-Leste) in a national spectacle program. 

There are 13,500 people over 40 years in Timor-Leste who are blind.  Of these people, about 10,000 have cataracts which can be removed in an operation that restores sight.  Another 87,500 people have poor vision which is easily corrected with spectacles.