By Trend

The Azerbaijan International Development Agency (AIDA) conducted the Alliance to Fight Avoidable Blindness (AFAB) campaign in 2019 in the regions of Chad - N'Djamena, Melfi and Adre, as well as in the regions of Nigeria - Magaria, Mayachi, Maine -Soroa and Diffa in Africa within the partnership with the Islamic Development Bank, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

Some 22,800 people underwent an ophthalmologic examination and 3,276 people who partially or completely lost their eyesight were operated on as part of the campaign conducted through national programs for the control of vision diseases, as well as through the Tunisian Agency for Technical Cooperation Nadi Al-Bassar.

AIDA joined the campaign in 2012. It is conducted in several African countries that are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. AIDA is a strategic partner of the Islamic Development Bank within this program.

At the first stage of the program, which covered 2009-2016, more than 300,000 people underwent medical check-up free of charge in 11 African countries as a whole and over 56,000 people who partially or completely lost their eyesight were operated on. Doctors from the Zarifa Aliyeva National Ophthalmology Center also took part in the operations. In addition, professional development training was organized for 177 local doctors.

The second phase of the program was launched in 2018, which covers the next five years. As part of this work, 100,000 people are planned to be operated on in 12 African countries, more than a million schoolchildren will be checked up and provided with glasses, 90 local doctors will undergo advanced training courses.