GABORONE, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Botswana marked World Sight Day with the theme "Love Your Eyes" and officially launched the School Eye Health Screening and Treatment Project in Kopong village, 25 kilometers north of Gaborone, Botswana's capital.

"Botswana, like most developing countries, faces a problem of vision impairment, 80 percent of which is preventable and can be avoided," said Minister of Education and Skills Development, Douglas Letsholathebe, at the commemoration on Monday.

Letsholathebe stated that the most recent survey conducted in Botswana in 2014 found that blindness and vision impairment affected 5.2 percent of those aged 50 and older, an increase of 1.5 percent from the previous survey in 2006.

The leading causes of the vision problems in the 2006-2007 survey were uncorrected refractive errors, cataracts, glaucoma, and diabetes. Uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts are the leading causes in children aged 0 to 15 years, according to surveys.

The project, a collaboration between the Ministry of Education and Skills Development and Ministry of Health, began in the Kweneng District in July 2022. It will travel to the districts of Kgalagadi North, Kgalagadi South, Chobe, Kgatleng, and North East before concluding in 2025.

The goal of this project is to use the Portable Eye Examination Kit to identify children with eye conditions such as refractive errors. Over 30,000 young students have been screened since July 2022. Enditem

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