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Project Updates

At Collaborative Vision, we want to make sure that our donors are in the loop. Here you will find up to date information on the surgeries we have funded as well as the projects we are working on. This page is updated monthly.

November, 2022

  • Collaboartive visions directors continue to work behind the secenes on a couple of exciting research projects. We are very excited to announce that our article was just accepted to BMC Infectious Disease. We will share it as soon as it is published. 

Collaborative Vision Director, Yassin Nayel, is independently working on a research project in collaboration with the Ophthalmology Department at Fayoum University and Helwan University to conduct a national survey on the perceptions of Egyptian ophthalmologists on the impacts of Trachoma. The survey received over 150 responses and they are now in the process of data analysis. 

  • We have been grateful for all of the support for everyone who has donated in our go fund me campaign. See link for more info: https://www.gofundme.com/f/fighting-against-preventable-blindness. A big thank you to everyone who has donated!
  • One of the issues we run into is that often cases other then trachoma are diagnosed. Dr. Nayel diagnosed a young woman with an urgent retinal detachment case.  He approached us to see if we were able to help with the costs of that surgery. Even though it was not trachoma, the directors felt they couldn’t ignore it. We agreed to part fund the cost of this operation. 
  • Collaborative Vision turned 1 on December 14! 

November,  2020

We have been closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation in Egypt. 

We were able to fund 4 trachoma surgeries in Qena in southern Egypt through a local hospital. 

We have been closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation in Egypt. Our  operations are still suspended. However, our efforts have been focused on 

– Developing the screening tool. 

-Working on our website.

-Getting ahead on donations in order to be able to move quickly once we are able to.

A project that has been taking a significant part of our time is encouraging the collaboration of professionals to develop a screening tool to identify advanced stages of Trachoma. The goal is to develop an easy to use tool that will decrease the number of trips needed to the clinic in Cairo.  

Recently we have been focused on,

  • Expanding network of professionals and community volunteers in Egypt. 
  • Laying the foundation to partner with existing NGOs in Egypt. 

Unfortunately due to COVID-19 in Egypt, we have stopped funding non-urgent surgeries until further notice. As many of the people we treat are from rural areas outside of Cairo, traveling into the city increases their chances of contracting the virus and bringing it back to their home communities. We will resume our work as soon as it is safe to do so. In the mean time, we are hard at work on some exciting projects. 

With the generous support of our donors, we were able to fund five more vision restoring surgeries. Two surgeries were Trachoma related while the other three were patients that had previously come to the clinic with other eye related issues.

Strategic developments through speaking with patients and professionals on the ground following early surgeries

  • We understand that talking about symptoms is often avoided by patients. This may be due to a cultural belief that complaining can be seen as being ungrateful for what god has given them (this was also seen by  Fouad, Mousa, & Courtright, in their 2004 article titled Sociodemographic characteristics associated with blindness in a Nile Delta governorate of Egypt). 
  • Patients may not  seek care due to knowing they would be unable to pay for surgery if needed. 
  • Patients had a certain level of fear associated with traveling to the big city and undergoing surgery. 
  • Patients may not disclose underlying medical conditions for fear that this could cause the surgery to be deemed too risky. 

Read our blog post about it.

Collaborative Vision is officially incorporated!  
 

A Few of the Patients We Have Funded Surgery for:

For more detailed information and stories about what we've learned, visit our blog.