By IANS,
Dubai : Dubai’s new global blindness eradication programme Noor Dubai will take a three-pronged approach during its implementation – therapy, prevention and education.
Giving details of the new campaign, director general of Dubai Health Authority Qadhi Saeed Al Murooshid said that the campaign would get under way in the ongoing Islamic holy month of Ramadan with a special focus on its therapeutic agenda, the state-run Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
“Noor Dubai’s comprehensive programmes will collectively ensure that our vision of a world free from preventable forms of blindness can become a reality,” Al Murooshid said.
Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai campaign Sep 3 on the occasion of Ramadan.
The campaign is aimed at helping the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) achieve the goals outlined in “Vision 2020: The Right to Sight”.
Noor Dubai will treat and provide health services to one million people suffering from treatable blindness and visual impairment in developing countries.
The Dubai Health Authority will implement the Noor Dubai agenda in collaboration with two leading international organisations: Lions Club International, the world’s largest volunteer organisation with an international network of 1.3 million members in 202 countries, and ORBIS International, a global development organisation whose mission is to treat and prevent blindness by strengthening the capacity of local eye health partners.
According to the WAM report, the programme’s three components will jointly seek to treat and prevent blindness and visual impairment in the UAE and developing countries on a regional and international scale.
“Most of these patients would not have had access to these surgeries in their home countries due to limited personal finances, logistical difficulties, or limited resources in their healthcare systems,” Al Murooshid said.
Stating that the people of Dubai were blessed to have first-rate facilities and physicians with the means and ability to offer world class treatment, he said: “This is a blessing that the people of Dubai wish to share with those most in need across the globe.”
According to Al Murooshid, under the therapeutic agenda, the programme aims to surgically treat patients in Dubai for multiple conditions that cause blindness and low vision.
Details of the other two components – prevention and education – will be revealed soon, he said.
Noor Dubai is already enlisting patients from developing countries with the help of Lions Club International and ORBIS International, and nationally through the health ministry, the Red Crescent and Red Cross Societies.
In the run-up to its official launch, the programme has already reached out to people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine with more expected to be added in the near future.
UAE nationals and expatriate residents have also been identified as beneficiaries of the programme.
Through its work, Noor Dubai will help people suffering from three major eye diseases: cataract, which is the leading cause of blindness in the world affecting 18 million people representing 48 percent of the total number of blind people; strabismus that affects over five percent of children worldwide; and corneal opacities which are responsible for the blindness of 4.9 million people.
“Today is the beginning of a unique journey that will offer a new dawn to many of the world’s most impoverished people,” Al Murooshid said.