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Most sight loss in Uganda can be prevented. It starts with a knock on the door.

COHEAL trains and equips Village Health Teams (VHTs) and Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) to find eye problems early, refer people for care and make sure they get it, conduct health promotion and education, dispense presbyopia glasses, in villages, schools and refugee settlements.

See our eye health impact Give the gift of sight

The problem

At least 3 in every 10 Ugandans have an eye condition

In some districts it is 5 in 10. About 6% of people live with visual impairment, mostly from causes that can be prevented or treated.

Those causes are ordinary and well understood: cataract, uncorrected short- and long-sightedness, glaucoma, trachoma and river blindness.

Care is far away and expensive for most families. A pair of glasses can cost Shs 500,000 to 800,000 on the open market - many times what a poor household can afford. Eye health receives less than 1% of the national health budget.

The cost is measured in more than sight. Children who cannot see the board fall behind in school. Adults lose work, income and independence. Poor sight makes roads less safe.

A health worker checks the eyes of a man in a green-walled room during a community eye outreach
A driver undergoes an eye check examination during a community-based eye outreach in Rubaga division.

Why sight loss goes untreated

Four barriers between a village and an eye clinic

Too few specialists

Uganda has about 60 ophthalmologists - roughly one for every 800,000 to 1,000,000 people. WHO recommends one for every 250,000.

Glasses cost too much

A pair can cost Shs 500,000 to 800,000 on the open market, many times what a poor household can afford.

Little funding

Eye health receives less than 1% of the national health budget, so outreach and screening are chronically under-resourced.

Daily risks at home

Smoke from cooking fires irritates and damages eyes, while poor water and sanitation spread eye infections - and few families get routine eye check-ups.

3 in 10
Ugandans have an eye condition - 5 in 10 in some districts
60
Ophthalmologists for the whole country, against a WHO ratio of 1 per 250,000
Under 1%
Of the national health budget is spent on eye health

Why VHTs and CHEWs matter

No eye doctor in every village - but a health worker in every village

With so few eye specialists, Uganda cannot bring an eye doctor to every village. But it already has a health worker in every village. Our approach is simple: we give them the skills and tools to protect people's sight, and they deliver as trusted community actors.

Together they close the gap between home and the eye clinic. Most people with poor sight never reach an eye clinic - not because treatment is impossible, but because nobody checked, nobody referred them, or nobody followed up. VHTs and CHEWs fix all three.

Village Health Team members in red COHEAL shirts seated under a shelter during a community eye health training
Community-based eye health training for VHTs in Refugee settlement.

How it works

From a home visit to restored sight

One trained health worker, one simple vision chart and one follow-up visit is often all it takes.

Find

Household visits and school screening pick up people who did not know their sight could be helped.

Refer

Anyone with a complicated eye condition is referred to an eye unit, with the referral tracked.

Support

Families are helped to reach the clinic - distance, cost and fear are all worked through locally.

Treat

Reading glasses are dispensed on the spot; hygiene, face-washing and smoke-free cooking are taught.

Follow up

VHTs check that referred people actually got care, and record what happened.

What COHEAL does

Six things we put in place

  1. Train and equip VHTs and CHEWs in primary eye care Screening, referral, glasses dispensing and eye health education, delivered in the languages people use daily.
  2. Run school eye health with teachers Screening pupils' sight, referring children who need glasses, and teaching hygiene and healthy eye habits.
  3. Link communities to eye services Working with district health teams and eye units to bring outreach camps to villages and refugee settlements.
  4. Make glasses affordable Connecting families to low-cost and subsidised spectacles instead of leaving them untreated.
  5. Prevent eye disease Face-washing and hygiene promotion, clean cooking to reduce smoke, safe water, and support for mass treatment against river blindness where it continues, including in Adjumani.
  6. Track results Recording every screening, referral and treatment so the next outreach reaches the people still missing out.

Community based eye health impact

What community screening has delivered so far

The same figures appear on our impact page - reported once, used everywhere.

50,763
People screened for eye conditions
Villages, schools and refugee settlements
20,991
Eye wear glasses dispensed
Mostly reading glasses for presbyopia
336
Complicated eye conditions identified and referred
Sent to eye units for specialist care
141
People referred and followed up by VHTs
Confirmed to have reached care
717
VHTs and CHEWs trained in community-based eye health
Each one serving their own community

From the field

What the work looks like

Health workers at tables under a white tent screening community members on a grassy field
Training of VHTs in community-based eye screeningVolunteers practise screening and referral at a district training.
A man has his vision measured with an auto-refractor at an outdoor eye screening station
Eye care screening at the ECCE Policy 2025 launchRefraction testing during the national early childhood care and education outreach.
A community volunteer speaks to a group seated under a tent at an eye outreach
Community eye outreachHealth education before screening, in the language of the community.
A nurse hands a prescription slip to a woman wearing a hijab during an eye clinic
Referral and follow-upPeople with complicated conditions leave with a referral - and a VHT who checks they got there.
A health worker fits reading glasses for a woman at a screening desk
Reading glasses dispensed on siteA pair of glasses is often the difference between reading and not.
Two people are screened at a table under a tent at a community eye camp
Integrated community outreachEye screening runs alongside other community health services.
A community member reads a vision chart during an eye screening session
A simple vision chartNo electricity, no specialist needed - and dozens of people found in one village.

Help a community see clearly

A trained VHT with a simple vision chart can find dozens of people who need glasses or surgery in a single village. Your support makes that possible.

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