With the new project, aimed in particular at the most fragile categories of the population and people with disabilities, it is expected in 3 years to construct the building that will house the pediatric ward inside the Buluk Eye Center (BEC), the first eye center in South Sudan, started by Cbm in 2015, purchase furniture and equipment, train medical personnel –health and create mobile eye clinics. «The name Buluk Eye Center resonates throughout the country. As eye care coverage expands and new specialties such as diabetic retinopathy and pediatric eye are introduced, we will no longer have to travel to Uganda, Kenya, Sudan or other countries. The South Sudanese population will be treated in their own country,” underlined Dr. Malek, director general at the Ministry of National Health of South Sudan during the ceremony.
The project also envisages the implementation in the most vulnerable communities of prevention practices for neglected tropical diseases such as trachoma and onchocerciasis, the strengthening of proximity health services with the capillary diffusion of inclusive and accessible eye services throughout the territory, the treatment of complex pathologies and rehabilitation activities. “Providing quality care to improve the lives of thousands of people: this is why we are here today, because all of us together can make this dream come true”, comments Massimo Maggio, director of Cbm Italia. «We started working in South Sudan 20 years ago, always in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, with the aim of strengthening eye care services in the country, and we have never stopped since then. In fact, we believe that healthy eyesight is everyone’s right, especially children: this new center is dedicated to them, because they are the future”.
Cbm was the first organization to bring eye care to South Sudan. The first project dates back to 2003. In 2015 the most important step: the opening of the first eye center in South Sudan, the Buluk Eye Center (BEC), which since then has been helping to reduce avoidable blindness in the state of Jubek. All of Cbm Italia’s interventions share the same vision: to offer vision health services integrated into the local national health system, accessible to all, especially the most fragile, and which offer complete patient care: from prevention to treatment up to to rehabilitation.
In the photo of the opening ceremony of the centre, the second from the left is Eleonora Giordano, Head of Programs CBM Italia. Followed by: Dr Gamal Hassan Guma (DG Ministry of Health Central Equatoria State), Lodae Pasqual Loyakori (Minister of Health Easter Equatoria State), Jacob Akuochpiir Acuoth (Minister of Health Lakes State), Dr Malek (DG Ministry of National Health), Francis Okello (Country Director of CBM South Sudan).