GRACE VISION PROGRAMME DURING COVID-19 - UPDATE

Grace Vision has been operating during the pandemic. Following guidelines from the National and Eastern Cape Department of Health with whom we have our MOU, we have been operating in a restricted form. As with all state ophthalmology departments, we have been limited to examining urgent and emergency patients in the Grace Vision premises at the Zithulele hospital and the Canzibe Hospital. The following is how operations have proceeded and facilities utilized:

We have been phoning patients who require critical chronic eye medication and dropping it off at their clinics for them to collect and spectacles which were not collected or in production during lockdown. This is being done every week to cover the 26 clinics we serve and repeated to continue each month with chronic medication.
Our team has been involved in making and distributing of masks for COVID-19 relief and support for the vulnerable community. In addition, they are helping at the hospital gate for screening and triage.
Our accommodation units (normally used for surgeons or theatre sisters) have been utilized by the hospital for isolation of personnel who are COVID positive.
Schools in the area have been closed for long periods and then briefly open so we are encouraging any urgent needs to be sent to Grace Vision at the hospital and will screen children at the clinics as we are soon starting with our clinic outreach.
As the virus will continue for the foreseeable future, we have re-invented how we will operate safely for our patients and staff. We will shortly start our mobile clinic outreach with very strict safety protocols in place. Following expert advice from various medical specialists, there is a detailed protocol of how we will examine patients and how we will maximize patient and staff safety. Patient numbers will have to be less due to sanitising equipment and examination area after each patient. Extensive PPE for staff and social distancing and masks for patients will be ensured.
Cataract surgeries will be on hold for a while longer as we await the go ahead from Department of Health ophthalmology.
While COVID-19 has changed the world and the way we can operate, but we are thankful that we can now get back to serving the eye care of poor and vulnerable in our rural area.
Grace Vision is very thankful to all funders, both corporate and private for the impact that they have had and will continue to have on the poorest and often neglected rural population. We are dedicated to working tirelessly at serving this need to the best of our ability and in the most effective way in all circumstances.

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FREE LIFE-CHANGING CATARACT SURGERIES

Accessible to those in need in Rural South Africa

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FREE LIFE-CHANGING CATARACT SURGERIES

Accessible to those in need in Rural South Africa

DONATE

2018 GRACE VISION CELEBRATES 10 YEARS

of eye care in Eastern Cape

DONATE

FREE LIFE-CHANGING CATARACT SURGERIES

Accessible to those in need in Rural South Africa

DONATE

FREE LIFE-CHANGING CATARACT SURGERIES

Accessible to those in need in Rural South Africa

DONATE

2018 GRACE VISION CELEBRATES 10 YEARS

of eye care in Eastern Cape

DONATE

FREE LIFE-CHANGING CATARACT SURGERIES

Accessible to those in need in Rural South Africa

DONATE

2018 GRACE VISION CELEBRATES 10 YEARS

of eye care in Eastern Cape

DONATE

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THE NEED FOR GRACE VISION

Grace Vision provides free, high quality primary eye care to the poorest region of the poorest province in South Africa. Cataracts, Glaucoma and Macular Degeneration are prevalent conditions in poor rural communities.

Our specialised team aims to provide free cataract removal surgeries and vision restoration procedures to those who need it most. Blindness and poor vision can be reduced and even prevented if people have access to primary eye care and life-changing eye surgeries.

Grace Vision aims to restore sight, dignity and life.

achievement july

THE NEED

It is estimated that around 400,000 South Africans are already blind.

Approximately 240,000 of these people are blind from cataracts (official estimation). The number of cataract cases is increasing every year, and those suffering usually cannot afford procedures to correct them.

OUR MISSION

Nearly 80% of cases of blindness are preventable or treatable with medical interventions.

A growing number of children with treatable vision impairments do not have access to the treatment they need. It is our mission to change these statistics.

OUR GOAL

Our aim is to reduce the prevalence of blindness and low vision in the rural communities of the Eastern Cape.

We aim to provide free, comprehensive eye care and life-changing eye surgeries to the communities who cannot afford it.

WHAT DONORS HAVE ACHIEVED THROUGH THEIR GENEROUS FUNDING:

42018

Adults Screened

65702

Children Screened

14289

Spectacles Distributed

1731

Cataract Surgeries

FROM OUR GRACE VISION BLOG

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GRACE VISION PROGRAMME DURING COVID-19 - UPDATE

We have been phoning patients who require critical chronic eye medication and dropping it off at their clinics for them to collect and spectacles which were not collected or in production during lockdown. This is being done every week to cover the 26 clinics we serve and repeated to continue each month with chronic medication.
Our team has been involved in making and distributing of masks for COVID-19 relief and support for the vulnerable community. In addition, they are helping at the hospital gate for screening and triage.
Our accommodation units (normally used for surgeons or theatre sisters) have been utilized by the hospital for isolation of personnel who are COVID positive.
Schools in the area have been closed for long periods and then briefly open so we are encouraging any urgent needs to be sent to Grace Vision at the hospital and will screen children at the clinics as we are soon starting with our clinic outreach.
As the virus will continue for the foreseeable future, we have re-invented how we will operate safely for our patients and staff. We will shortly start our mobile clinic outreach with very strict safety protocols in place. Following expert advice from various medical specialists, there is a detailed protocol of how we will examine patients and how we will maximize patient and staff safety. Patient numbers will have to be less due to sanitising equipment and examination area after each patient. Extensive PPE for staff and social distancing and masks for patients will be ensured.
Cataract surgeries will be on hold for a while longer as we await the go ahead from Department of Health ophthalmology.
While COVID-19 has changed the world and the way we can operate, but we are thankful that we can now get back to serving the eye care of poor and vulnerable in our rural area.
Grace Vision is very thankful to all funders, both corporate and private for the impact that they have had and will continue to have on the poorest and often neglected rural population. We are dedicated to working tirelessly at serving this need to the best of our ability and in the most effective way in all circumstances.

Please close the box by pressing the x at the top or just click outside the box to continue to website

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GRACE VISION PROGRAMME DURING COVID-19 - UPDATE

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