Clinical delivery
Qualified eye-care professionals, appropriate screening equipment and referral pathways.
2027 Programme · KwaZulu-Natal
Back-to-School Vision 2027.
The school year starts. Access should too.
A school-based programme focused on helping learners move from identifying a vision need to reaching appropriate care, visual support and follow-through.
Planning target: 27 January 2027. Participating schools, clinical capacity and final programme scope will be confirmed in partnership with the relevant school community.
OPEN AIR SCHOOL · DURBAN · 2024 PROGRAMME PHOTOGRAPHY
The problem
A vision need should not become a classroom barrier.
Reading the board and keeping up with written work should not depend on whether a family can reach the right eye-care services.
A screening is only a starting point. Learners can still face barriers to examination, prescribed correction, appropriate low-vision aids or referrals. Back-to-School Vision brings these stages into one coordinated school-community approach.
The Rolled Sleeves Vision Pathway
From screening to meaningful support.
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Screen and identify
Work with the school and qualified eye-care partners to recognise learners who may need more support.
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Assess and guide
Connect learners requiring further assessment with appropriately qualified professionals.
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Equip when appropriate
Facilitate prescribed spectacles and suitable low-vision or assistive devices when indicated and available.
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Refer and follow through
Keep track of referrals, laboratory orders and outstanding support rather than treating screening as completed care.
Built on experience
Our 2024 programme is the starting point.
99Learners screened
49Spectacles dispensed
49Separate lab orders placed
Open Air School, Durban, 8–9 October 2024. The clinical summary records laboratory orders placed, not later delivery of those orders.
Explore the documented outreachPartner with the work
There is a role for more than one kind of partner.
The final programme is shaped around participating schools, clinical partners, available funding and the support learners actually require.
Optical and low-vision support
Frames, lenses, laboratory fulfilment, clinically appropriate magnifiers and monocular aids.
Programme support
Transport, school logistics, education resources, consent processes and delivery tracking.
Funding and in-kind support
Help with the costs and resources identified in an agreed school-based outreach plan.
Start a conversation
Help turn the next school term into an opportunity for access.
We welcome school enquiries, funding partnerships, optical and low-vision equipment support, and appropriately qualified eye-care professionals who can strengthen delivery.