The school would be the first of its kind in the small Caribbean nation, which has struggled to recover from a magnitude-7.0 earthquake in 2010 that killed more than 316,000 people and rendered 1.6 million homeless.It’s hoped that the morandum of agreent for the project, which was also signed by l’Universite d’Etat d’Haiti, Optometry Giving Sight, VOSH International and Charity Vision, will allow students to begin their studies by October.According to Invision Magazine, there are currently only three optometrists and 58 ophthalmologists available to serve the nation’s population of 10 million. In addition, these are predominantly located in the capital Port-au-Prince, making it difficult for the majority of people to access primary eyecare services.BHVI’s director of global human resource development, Dr Luigi Bilotto, said the project aimed to graduate 16 optometrists per year, in what would be a five-year Bachelor of Vision Science degree.“This means within 10 years, there will be 80 new, locally educated eyecare professionals who will be providing eyecare to more than 360,000 Haitians per annum,” he said.Bilotto was recently announced as the 2017 recipient of the American Acady of Optometry-Essilor Award for Outstanding International Contributions to Optometry.Since 2008, under Bilotto’s direction, BHVI and its partners have supported the implentation of 13 optometry schools in Malawi, Mozambique, Eritrea, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, Nicaragua and Vietnam, along with two optometric technician programs in Malawi and Eritrea.
IMAGE TOP: Dr Luigi Bilotto, BHVI director of global human resource development.
