2 million children saved from blindness

3,240,000 people in the country suffer from various visual impairments, ranging from partial to total blindness, which may be present from birth or acquired later due to accidents or illness.

Children's eye screening for 20 years and an interesting achievement

3 million and 240 thousand people in the country have various types of visual impairments up to total blindness, who may have had this disability since birth, or may have lost their vision due to an accident or disease.

Ambassador Arjan - Mohammad Sarabi: A practical way to reduce the number of blind people is to screen for eye diseases from the beginning of childhood. 20 years ago, Behazisti started a screening program for visual disorders in children, which has led to the identification and treatment of 2 million children. These children have been saved from severe low vision or total blindness by timely detection of the disease. Fatemeh Abbasi, deputy of rehabilitation of the country's welfare organization, emphasized in a conversation with Ambassador Arjan that identification of the blind is done in the whole country and this has been implemented in villages and deprived areas up to 95%.

On the sidelines of the White Cane Day meeting in welfare, Fatemeh Abbasi, in a conversation with Ambassador Arjan, stated that the blind people covered by welfare are registered in the system based on their needs and services, and this statistic is not equal to the overall statistics of the country's blind population. Welfare implemented Community Based Rehabilitation or CBR to identify the disabled and all those in need of blind related services. First, we started from the deprived areas. This project has been completed in 95% of villages and it started in cities since last year, when 10% of cities were covered and it will reach 20% by the end of this year. CBR does not only include identification and also addresses other issues such as health, employment and livelihood.

According to him, the plan to prevent lazy eye, which is implemented for children under school age, is a big project that prevents widespread harm in the future of these children: "Since 1995, the screening of diseases of children aged 3 to 6 years under the title of prevention of lazy eye started, and now it has reached 85% of children. In these years, 63 million children have been examined, and as a result, more than 2 million people have been diagnosed with vision disorders and more than 400 thousand people have been diagnosed with lazy eye. Fortunately, due to timely intervention, these loved ones were prevented from becoming completely blind."

3 diseases that threaten the eyesight of the elderly

The vice president of rehabilitation of the welfare organization further mentions the effect of aging by enumerating the causes of blindness and says: "Aquatic, cataracts and diabetic vision disorder are among the most common causes of low vision and blindness in the elderly." Now 11% of our country's population is elderly and we are rapidly moving towards an elderly society. "We have started a plan for blindness and low vision of the elderly." Abbasi emphasizes: "If timely examination and intervention are done, blindness in old age will be prevented. With the cooperation of the Optometric Association of Iran, 50,000 examinations were carried out in the neighborhoods that are far away and the residents cannot go to an optometrist. 18,000 glasses were donated to these elderly people from the plan of the Optometry Association.

265 thousand blind people covered by welfare

The number of blind people covered by the country's welfare reaches more than 250,000 people, but according to the severity and type of vision disorders, there is a slight difference in the statistics. Seyyed Javad Hosseini, head of the country's welfare organization, said at the meeting of the White Cane Day in welfare, pointing out that 265,000 blind people are covered by welfare, "More than 196,000 blind people are benefiting from pensions and more than 27,000 people are receiving financial assistance." Also, 11,000 people have commuting services and about 8,000 people have the right to nursing." Referring to educational support for people with disabilities, he said: "Currently, 243,000 students and 20,000 students benefit from the services of the Welfare Organization. Also, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Science, the issue of providing academic and psychological counseling services to students has been put on the agenda. Last year, about 6,000 covered students, including blind students, were provided with educational assistance and tuition fees, and an average of 25 million Tomans was paid for each student.

Sites that accommodate the blind

Representatives of blind organizations were also present at the White Cane Day meeting, representatives who used this opportunity to raise the concerns of the blind community, most of which included "not having access" to the websites and portals of banks and offices. These sites are mostly designed for fully sighted people and only a few of them are "accommodated". On the other hand, the government has implemented plans to adapt the ports and monitor and evaluate this work, but some problems still remain. Sohail Moini, the CEO of Iran's Belief Association for the Blind, told Ambassador Arjan: "If the representatives of the blind organizations are present in the evaluations and decision-making for adaptations, the main part of the problems can be solved. 25 to 30 percent of those in the visually impaired group are totally blind, while today many of the services needed by citizens are provided through portals.

45 organizations in the national blind network

Since last year, the organizations of the blind have gathered in the National Network of the Blind in Iran so that they can follow up the demands of this group of citizens with a better organization. Mansoor Shadkam, the CEO of the National Network of the Blind, told Ambassador Arjan: "The National Network of the Blind was formed once in 2019, but in the second period, which started from Aban 1404, it has been more active. The network now has 45 members, which includes organizations in different provinces, and some provinces have more than one organization that operates in different cities. Citing an example, he says: "Hormozgan province has 3 associations, and on the other hand, in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad provinces, we need the effective activity of the association."