COUNTRY DIRECTOR’S SPEECH ON THE LAUNCHING OF CATARACT SURGERIES CAMPAIGN.

Honourable Vice President, International Humanitarian Foundation (IHH),

Representative from Turkish Embassy in Tanzania

Project Coordinator, International Humanitarian Foundation (IHH),

Sightsavers Tanzania Country Program Staff,

First of all I would like to give you a warm welcome for visiting Tanzania and in particular at Sightsavers Tanzania Country Program Office. Your visit from Turkey to Tanzania is a blessing for us as far as eye health programming is concerned.

Sightsavers is a Non-Governmental Organization whose mission is to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. Sightsavers supports a total of 10 projects across the country including Iringa comprehensive Eye Services. The 10 projects are scattered around Eye Health Services, Human Resource for Eye Health and Social Inclusion

Today is a great day for us to launch the cataract campaign on behalf of Iringa Comprehensive Eye Services Project (Iringa region) and Morogoro Comprehensive Eye. This campaign is a pilot project which target to reduce 500 cataracts in Iringa region (200 cataract surgeries) and Morogoro region (300 cataract surgeries).This support has a value of US $ 32,000.

Reports indicate that Iringa region has a cataract backlog of about 8,000 while Morogoro region has a cataract backlog of more than 10,000. Therefore the support which we have received from International Humanitarian Foundation will help to reduce this backlog. The support will be directed into outreach services which will cover costs for outreach teams, consumables and community mobilization.

For the whole of last week, the project team in Iringa was doing community mobilization and sensitization in order to create awareness about this support. Therefore it is our hope that a lot of community members will be available in the outreach camps to access cataract surgeries which are free of charge.

I would like to assure IHH that this pilot project of 500 surgeries will be completed within the given timeline and will open the door for more funding in Tanzania. I have been told that after the pilot project if implemented successfully, we may be given a target of between 3000-5000 cataract surgeries. Our teams both at Country office and at project level are very committed people and enthusiastic to ensure the project is implemented at the required standard.

Lastly I wish you all the best on your return back to Istanbul, Turkey but keep remembering that there are more than 18,000 Tanzanians in Iringa and Morogoro who needs support so that they can be eliminated their avoidable blindness.

First of all, I would like to thank our friends from Tanzanian Media for joining us on this important day. IHH International Relief Foundation is now operating on more than 130 countries all over the world. From Argentina to S. Africa, from Chine to Egypt and Bosnia, we are trying to help people in need and who are vulnerable anywhere anytime. It is unfortunate to say that African countries compose an important share of our efforts considering the prevailing economic, social and political challenges Africa facing.

In Tanzania, since 2008 we have been implementing projects in diverse fields including education, health, social projects. We are honored to say that on behalf of IHH Foundation we have built schools, mosques, water wells etc. almost all over the Tanzania. And Insha’Allah we are now starting a new project in a very important field: African Cataract Project in Tanzania.

Since 2007, we have implemented 70.000 cataract operations in more than 10 African countries. Until now Somalia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger and many other have benefitted from this project. Considering the contribution a healthy sight makes to a person’s life, you should understand why we attach such a high importance to eye care and specifically cataract illness. Almost 1.2% of Africa suffers from blindness and a considerable part of it is because of cataract. As we increase the number of cataract surgeries implemented and doctors educated in this field in African countries, we know that we are enabling thousands of people to join daily life economically and socially and cease to depend on other.

In collaboration with Sightsavers Foundation with whom we are privileged to work with, we will be treating 500 cataract blind people in Tanzania, which is just a beginning to what we are going to do in Tanzania. Insha’Allah as we successfully complete our 500 operations in Iringa and Morogoru regions, we will start a much more comprehensive campaign for thousands of Tanzanians in many regions of Tanzania.