Together We Stand

[ 69 ] Direct Aid and Al Basar: a partnership from darkness to sight Dr Abdulrahman Al Muhailan, Chairman, Direct Aid; and Dr Adil Al Rashood, Chairman, Al-Basar International Foundation D irect Aid (DA) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Kuwait, which offers services in education, health, vocational training, social welfare and relief. It operates in some 30 African countries in the sub-Saharan region, in addition to Yemen and Tunisia. DA opened its first office in Malawi with very limited resources, but the outreach soon accelerated to most African countries thanks to the enthusiastic response of donors, both individu- als and organizations. During the past three decades, strong collaboration has been built with host governments, similar organizations and United Nations agencies. Partnership was a key factor in the development of DA, and its partnership with the Al-Basar International Foundation (BIF) illustrates its success. Established in 1989, BIF is a leading non-government, non- profit organization working for the prevention of blindness. The foundation was launched with the vision of a world free from avoidable causes of blindness, and provides therapeutic, preventative and educational programmes to manage blind- ness and visual impairment in developing countries on a regional and international scale. BIF has its own comprehensive blindness control programme and executes its work by three means. The Al-Basar Caravans are quality-assured mobile outreach programmes, or ‘free eye camps’ with the facilities to address eye problems in remote areas. They deliver eye care including pre-operative evaluation, optical dispensing, medical and surgical management and a complete schedule of post-operative follow-up visits. BIF’s self-sustained charity eye hospitals deliver secondary and tertiary eye care. In addition, BIF’s human resource development facilities, institutes and colleges provide training for eye-care personnel such as ophthalmologists, nurses, technicians and other eye paramedics. Image: Majed Sultan AL Za’abi Eye examinations are carried out before giving spectacles to the patients T ogether W e S tand