An Australian funded eye care project plays an important role in developing and introducing new models for eye care at the grass-roots level in Vietnam.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen affirmed this at a seminar in Hanoi on July 23 to review one year of implementing the Vietnam-Australia Vision Support Project and set tasks for the remaining year of the project.

The project is being implemented in Quang Nam, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Thanh Hoa provinces from June 2011 to June 2013 by the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology and the eye care sector in the three provinces.

Ms Xuyen said Vietnam is one of the countries actively responding to the World Vision Initiative 2020 launched by World Health Organisation (WHO) and it is actively promoting blindness prevention programmes.

During its first year of operation the project has helped the three provinces develop and implement blindness prevention plans and promote various eye care services.

In Quang Nam, the project established refraction testing services in four districts, offered free cataract surgeries for 654 people, and trained local eye doctors and nurses.

It provided free cataract check-ups and treatment for more than 3,000 pupils at eight schools and 333 orphans in Thanh Hoa province and helped set up three vision centres in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, providing eye check-ups and 7,000 eyeglasses for 26,000 pupils and 8,000 local people.