Kabgayi Eye Unit, May 7-15, 2022

I was asked by “Light for the World Belgium” www.lightfortheworld.be to visit their eye hospital in Kabgayi, Rwanda for a strabismus teaching and strabismus surgery mission with a colleague strabismologist dr Sabine.

Light for the World is an international disability and development NGO who fights against blindness, who wants to improve quality of life of persons with a visual handicap and fights for their rights. Light for the World Belgium works in the Democratic republic of Congo, in Rwanda and in Tanzania. 

The International Orthoptic Association (IOA) determined the first Monday in June as the “World Orthoptic Day”. The date is celebrated festively with many activities every year by the twenty four IOA country members. There are informative lectures in Orthoptic and eye healthy to the public and Orthoptic undergraduate students participate holding eye health fair. Disclosure of the career is done on written, digital and spoken media and in some countries patients participate in the celebrations at universities and hospitals, in addition to other different forms of celebration on the five continents.

The IOA is an association that has strong principles in maintaining and promoting Orthoptic in teaching, research and professional growth.

Hi my name is Wanda Lynn Ottar Pfeifer, for the past 28 years I have been involved in vision screening.  It all started when I moved to Iowa in 1992 and traveled throughout the state of Iowa preforming automated photoscreening with the “Eyecor” camera (prototype to the first commercial automated photoscreener, MTI Photoscreener) (Figure 1)  Over the next few years I continued to research the efficacy of automated vision screening and in 1995 I authored my first paper on vision screening, since then I have authored and co –author 12 papers on vision screening in journal such as  J of AAPOS, Ophthalmology, Binoc Vision strabismus Quarterly, AOJ, Insight and Pediatrics (Figure 2).

Port Harcourt University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, October 6 –13, 2018 

Last year during the WSPOS congress in Hyderabad, I met dr Adedayo Adio a Nigerian pediatric ophthalmologist from Port Harcourt and council member of the WSPOS. She told me that she wanted to start a 6 months orthoptic training course for optometrists in Nigeria and asked me to come for practical and theoretical teaching.

Orthoptics in Estonia By Svetlana Ismagilova

Here in Estonia we have three orthoptists (all of us have secondary medical education). One in Latvia, who was educated as an optometrist, and as far as I know there is none in Lithuatia. In Estonia orthoptists have been working since 1996. As we have no orthoptic schools in Estonia, we were trained in orthoptics by ophtholmologists and studied a lot of special literature. We acquired our practical skills in Sweden under supervision of orthoptist Eileen Bentley-Wennhall, who also visited our country to control the work of Estonian orthoptists. Because orthoptics is not accepted as a profession in our country our main goal is to make it legitimate. I was given the opportunity to continue the education in orthoptics in Sheffield University, England. I graduated in 2006. Unfortunately nothing has changed. But we still hope, that the situation will take a turn for the better.

The person responsible for the advent of orthoptics in Poland is Professor Marian Wilczek (1903 – 1967), whose initiative led to the construction of the Eye Hospital in Witkowice near Krakow, just after the end of World War II. At that time, the hospital was the largest in Poland, and virtually unprecedented on the European scale, ward dealing with strabismus and amblyopia. Professor Wilczek ran regular courses for orthoptists working at clinics specializing in strabismus and amblyopia. It is thanks to him that the profession of an orthoptist was formally recognized.

“Light for the World Belgium”, a NGO fighting against blindness, the improvement of quality of life of persons with a visual handicap and their rights invited Daisy Godts, Orthoptist, Belgium, to visit their 3 eye hospitals in the southern province of Congo, Katanga. Read about her wonderful experiences and interesting report.

A Journey to: Uganda by Lilliane Margaret Mugagga.

In her report Lilliane Margaret Mugagga desribes her work as an Orthoptist/Ophthalmic clinical officer/Refractionist at the Mengo Hospital Eye Clinic in Kampala, Uganda. Next to a very clear description of epidemiology in Uganda she also lists the various challenges orthoptists must face and possible plans to be realized. It is worthwhile reading her report!

During the 1970s, Israel offered a form of orthoptic training, which was useful to manage squints and amblyopia patients. However, this phased out as students looked for a higher training in European countries such as England, France and Italy. On returning to Israel, these orthoptists, on the strength of their qualification certificates, were able to register with the Israeli Ministry of Health and practice orthoptics both in hospitals and private practice. In 1999, the number of Israeli registered orthoptists was approximately 40. That figure has remained static to date, unlike the Israeli population , which is now approximately 7.5 million. Many Israeli orthoptists are now due for retirement and concern recently arose for the preservation of orthoptic practice in Israel.