Grantee News & Materials
Announcement: Request for Proposals (RFP) – A2Z: The USAID Micronutrient and Child Blindness Project
A2Z: The USAID Micronutrient and Child Blindness Project is pleased to announce the following Request for Proposals (RFP) under the A2Z Child Blindness Program. Links to guidelines and application materials are available below. Please review these documents carefully, as we have made some adjustments to application procedures, program priorities, funding levels, and application requirements. Proposal submissions are due July 8, 2010.
This cycle (“Cycle VI”) of grant funding will focus on:
Global Knowledge Base Grants: Global Knowledge Base Grants focus on contributions to the global knowledge base of program experience for child blindness interventions and large-scale child eye health programs. This RFP is exclusively for the Global Knowledge Base grant category. The Child Blindness Program is not issuing ‘Service Delivery,’ Refugee Service Delivery,’ and ‘Organizational Development’ grants at this time. Global Knowledge Base grants may not exceed $100,000 and are limited to a nine month period of activity.
Please e-mail childblindness@aed.org if you have any questions or difficulty with these files.
Proposal Materials
- RFP Guidelines
- Proposal Cover Sheet
- Budget Template
- Administrative Package
- Reporting Requirements Guide
- M&E Reporting Tools
- Sample AED Subgrant Template
A2Z Child Blindness Grantee, VisionSpring, featured on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric
The CBS Evening News team recently traveled to Rajasthan to learn more about A2Z Child Blindness Grantee, VisionSpring. This report tells the moving story of a woman named Ranju Sharma, a VisionSpring "Vision Entrepreneur" who became so well respected that she was the first woman ever nominated to run for village chief.
The goal of VisionSpring is to train and equip local community members as ‘Vision Entrepreneurs’. Once trained, VEs launch their own micro-franchises, selling affordable reading glasses and other eye care products at the village level.
Click here to watch the full video. To learn more about the work of VisionSpring, visit: http://www.visionspring.org/home/home.php
New Child Blindness Case Studies Now Available
Journal Articles from A2Z Child Blindness Grantee, Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO), featured in PLoS Medicine
The Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO) and its partners have been working to build management capacity to achieve VISION 2020—a global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness—in Tanzania since 2001. The following articles, published in PLoS Medicine in December 2009, share lessons learned by KCCO and its partner organizations in their work to eliminate avoidable blindness through programmes, training, and research focusing on the delivery of sustainable and replicable community ophthalmology services.
Click links below to access the full articles:
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Blindness in Childhood in Developing Countries: Time for a Reassessment? |
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The Need for Management Capacity to Achieve VISION 2020 in Sub-Saharan Africa |
A2Z Child Blindness Program Partners meet in Washington, DC to share experiences and explore emerging priorities
On November 2, 2009, 33 representatives from 15 eye care, health, and education organizations, as well as advisors from USAID, met in Washington, DC to participate in the A2Z Child Blindness Program Partners Meeting. The goal of the two-day meeting was to convene stakeholders of the A2Z Child Blindness Program to review project experiences, achievements and challenges. Participants also discussed emerging priorities in pediatric eye care service delivery and how the A2Z Child Blindness Program could respond to these needs. Click here to view meeting report, presentations, and materials.
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2009 Child Blindness Partners Meeting Report |
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A2Z Child Blindness Grantee Feature: The IRC Border Eye Program |
Community-based Eye Care: Haiti
A2Z documentary video
Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO) coordinates second childhood cataract stakeholders meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
On June 8, 2009, KCCO convened a second stakeholders meeting, entitled ‘Recognition, referral, and surgical intervention of children with severe visual impairment and blindness due to cataract: Review of evidence.’ The meeting brought together multiple partners working across Tanzania including Christian Blind Mission; Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania; Tanzania Society for the Blind; and, the Ministry of Health. Participants reviewed the progress of recent interventions and discussed strategies for improving case detection, referrals, treatment and follow-up care.
KCCO presented the following presentations at the meeting:
VisionSpring featured in Harvard Business Review ‘Toolkit’: Making Better Investments at the Base of the Pyramid, By: Ted London
VisionSpring’s work in Andhra Pradesh, India is highlighted in the May 2009 Harvard Business Review feature which focuses on methods for measuring the impact of ‘base of the pyramid’ approaches. An excerpt is available here: http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/05/making-better-investments-at-the-base-of-the-pyramid/ar/1 (Full article requires subscription)
‘A2Z – The USAID Micronutrient and Child Blindness Project: Fostering Innovative Approaches to Saving Sight’
On April 18, 2009, Roshelle Payes, A2Z Child Blindness Program Manager, participated in the panel presentation ‘Innovative Approaches to Overwhelming Need’ at Unite for Sight’s 5th Global Health & Innovation Summit at Yale University. Download the presentation here.
USAID Blindness Program Assists One Million Children in 23 Countries
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In the past year, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Child Blindness Program assisted over one million people through eye health education, comprehensive vision screening, refractive error correction, sight-restoring surgery, and education for blind children. Read full press release: http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2009/pr090304r.html
Child Blindness Program Receives Recognition Plaque
In February 2009, FUDEM inaugurated its second satellite eye care clinic in Soyapango, El Salvador. An Organization Development grant supported the purchase of essential equipment for one of the clinic’s exam rooms. As part of the opening ceremony, FUDEM awarded a recognition plaque to AED for its contribution in expanding pediatric services.
Publication: The USAID Child Blindness Program: Fostering Development through the Prevention and Treatment of Blinding Eye Disease
An overview of USAID’s activities in addressing avoidable blindness.
Download the publication here.
Publication: Looking to the Future with Hope
Stories from past child blindness activities. Download the publication here.
To post your organization’s child eye care news items or materials here, please email childblindness@aed.org
