Low vision

Eye for Zambia will help in setting up a rehabilitation program for people who have impaired vision or are blind

When a person cannot see well, not even with the best glasses and when no other eye treatment is possible, then we speak of vision impairment. When people see less than 30% they are visually impaired. When people see less than 5% they are blind.

different forms of visual impairment

When the central vision is affected, people have difficultiy recognizing faces and seeing small details such as reading letters.  The central sight is affected by for example age related macular degeneration. An estimated 2% of untreatable blindness in the elderly is caused by macular degeneration.
 
There are also vision disorders (for example glaucoma) where people have tunnel vision. People can then still read but not walk without help because they cannot orient themselves in a space.  The most common causes of untreatable blindness in the elderly in Zambia are; glaucoma (damage to the optic nerve by an eye pressure that is too high) 30%, corneal injury (trachoma or trauma) 15%.

For some eye diseases treatment is not always possible

The purpose of low vision aids is to enlarge images so that the details can again be seen. A low vision aid does not provide for a clearer vision, but can make certain tasks possible again. Even sunglasses can make a major difference in eye problems where sensitivity to light and glare is a problem. However low vision aids can not always provide the solution.  Rehabilitation, such as learning to walk with a cane, reading Braille and explaining the situation to the family (what someone can see) can provide much of help.