Improving visual care for all in Kenya

On 20–21 September 2019, Special Olympics Kenya and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology hosted a symposium on the interdisciplinary approach to health and vision care for individuals with intellectual disabilities, funded by Optometry Giving Sight.

The aims of this training included increasing knowledge of the medical community on the most common health and vision issues faced by individuals with intellectual disabilities and to help establish a health ‘supply chain’, including triage and primary health care collaboration.

Over 120 students and lecturers from Masinde Muliro University and the Kenya Medical Training College participated in the didactic and practical training.

In addition, eleven stakeholders from the health and education sectors took part in an inclusive health stakeholder meeting in Nairobi. Participants included representatives from:

• UNICEF,
• Kenya’s Ministry of Health,
• Kenya’s Ministry of Education,
• the Kenya National Health Insurance Fund,
• the National Council of Governance,
• the Kenya Association of the Intellectually Handicapped,
• Aga Khan University Hospital,
• Lions Sight First Hospital, and
• Special Olympics Kenya Clinical Directors.

The aim of the stakeholder meeting was to promote inclusive health services and to encourage the addition of a module on intellectual disability in the curriculum for health training, in order to help ensure sustainability.