Vision Impact Project

CBM, in partnership with the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is leading the Vision Impact Project (VIP), a four-year initiative to improve eye care in Kenya. With a budget of 17 million euros, the project will benefit over 8 million people across ten counties by enhancing access to quality public eye health services.

VIP focuses on reducing avoidable visual impairment and blindness in Kenya. Of the 7.5 million Kenyans affected by vision loss, only 1.6 million have access to effective eye care. Since 75% of these conditions can be treated to prevent sight loss, the project’s goal is to bridge this gap by strengthening health systems, improving infrastructure, and training local providers to deliver sustainable eye care.

Innovative Approaches

One of the project’s key innovations is the use of Peek Vision, a smartphone-based app that enables non-medical personnel, like community workers and teachers, to screen for eye conditions. This technology is expected to screen at least 60% of the community and 80% of school children during the project.

This approach will ensure that people with eye conditions or those who need rehabilitation following sight loss will access eye services. People like nine-year-old Emmanuel.  

Emmanuel’s teachers suspected he had a visual impairment because he could not read from the blackboard. They informed his mother Benerdate who took him to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a bilateral cataract.   

“They asked me to pay 36,000 Kenyan shillings (286 Euros) for Emmanuel to undergo surgery. I could not afford it because I do not have a regular income, even getting enough food is a problem. Sometimes we go to sleep hungry,” says Benerdate. 

Her husband died before Emmanuel started school.  

“Emmanuel was unhappy with school; he was beaten almost every day because he could not do homework. I felt pain at his predicament, I did not know what to do. If you look at his maths work, he gets average marks, and yet he cannot see properly. This means that if he could see, he would be doing well. He wants to be a doctor or a teacher, but will he achieve it? Not having an education is a real disadvantage in this life.”

Luckily, Emmanuel and Benerdate were visited by a CBM team during community outreach. They arranged for him to have surgery at CBM partner hospital, Sabatia Eye Hospital where his sight was corrected. Now he can focus on school.  

With the new VIP project, more children like Emmanuel and more adults can access much-needed care to save their sight.