Children denied schooling because of poor eyesight

Hundreds of thousands of children in Pakistan are missing out on school because they have eyesight problems and their parents can’t afford to get them treated or buy a pair of glasses. Like most children in her country who are blind or have trouble seeing, Kaneez Fatima, 10, does not go to school. Her mother said because Kaneez can’t see the blackboard properly, her teacher has told the family that she can’t learn. “We have no money to take Kaneez to a doctor or buy glasses,” Kaneez’s mother, Bushra Bibi, told the United Nations News service, IRIN. The family’s income is Rs 8,000 (US$100) a month.

There are 1.4 million blind people in Pakistan, according to Niazullah Khan, who works in Pakistan for the UK-based charity Sight Savers International. Out of these people, 45,000-48,000 are children under 15. And three times that number of children has sight problems that can probably be corrected or eased with glasses or treatment. That figure looks even worse next to the fact that Pakistan, which has a population of 165 million, has only 64 schools for blind and visually impaired children. “We often see children with eye problems and though we refer them to free eye clinics not all parents take their children there. They are not aware poor sight can affect learning and quality of life,” said GP, Dr Nishat Kausar. “Often people just try to buy cheap glasses from roadside sellers,” she said.

Blindness and sight problems are linked to poverty, scientific studies have shown. One of the causes for this is a widespread Vitamin A deficiency, experts believe. This is the leading cause of childhood blindness across the world, says The World Health Organisation. “Clinical deficiency of Vitamin A causes night blindness that may ultimately end up with loss of vision,” said Azhar Abid Raza, health officer for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Pakistan. “According to the National Nutrition Survey 2001-2002, 12.5 percent of children showed evidence of being vitamin A deficient,” he said. Since 1990 Pakistan has run a scheme to give needy children vitamin A supplements.

Several charities, non-profit organisations and government schemes are working to improve the situation for children with sight problems in Pakistan. “We treat one in every three eye patients in the country and our mission is to offer quality eye-care to anyone who needs it,” said Najmus Saquib Hameed, from the charitable Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Trust, which runs 56 eye clinics and hospitals across the country. Nonetheless, despite all these efforts, children like Kaneez Fatima are still being denied an education. “I wish I could see enough to read, like my sisters can,” she said.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children