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The Myanmar Eye Care Project (MECP), also known as the Myanmar Eye Care Program, is a not-for-profit organisation whose primary aim is to help address the burden of preventable and reversible eye disease in rural Myanmar by providing eye care services at low or zero cost to patients, and by training local ophthalmologists and ophthalmic auxiliaries to render these services. Founded in 2002 in the Wachet Jivitadana Sangha Hospital, the project has been involved in eleven programs, nine of which are currently running across Myanmar. Collectively, the program performs 35,000 cataract operations per year, trains ophthalmic technicians and provides training and teaching to local eye-care professionals.

Aim
The role of the MECP is to support local communities to be able to deliver sight-restoring services. This requires: It is a core precept of the World Health Organisation that the Mid-level Ophthalmic Technician (MLOT) is the key to adequate eye care for much of the developing world in the short to medium term. This concept is fully supported by Vision 2020. It is also central to the Global Action Plan for 2014-2019 of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. This has remained one of the main focuses of the MECP.
 * 1) Education and upskilling of eye surgeons and support staff, notably ophthalmic technicians and operating theatre nurses.
 * 2) Equipment and the skills to maintain equipment required.
 * 3) Funding to initiate work and to maintain the services.
 * 4) Guidance on fundraising and cost-sharing.
 * 5) Administration skills.

History
Following earlier pro-bono work in Bali, and the development of eye care projects in Indonesia in 1989 (with Yayasan Kemanusiaan Indonesia, also known in Australia as the John Fawcett Foundation),  Papua New Guinea during the years 1993-2001 (for the Church Medical Council of Papua New Guinea), and Cambodia in 1998-1999 (with HelpAge International), Sydney-based Ophthalmologist, Dr Geoffrey Cohn, was asked by a Sydney resident, herself a refugee from Myanmar, to consider setting up an eye care project in Myanmar to address the burden of preventable blindness in Myanmar in early 2002. With the support of the Venerable Sayadaw U Lakkhana, (Chief Abbot of the Kyaswa Monastery) and with the help of local project co-ordinators and members of the monastery community, and many volunteers, the service began treating patients in the already established the Wachet Jivitadana Sangha Hospital by late 2002. Following this, a second project was established in a monastery hospital on the slopes of Mount Popa-Taung-Kalat in 2003. The current national project coordinator and project developer of the Myanmar Eye Care Project for the past ten years, Daw Phuy Sinn Mon, trained initially as an ophthalmic technician at the Mount Popa-Taung-Kalat centre in 2003.

At the request of the Venerable Sayadaw U Nayaka, (Chief abbot of Phaung Daw Oo Monastery), an eye care project was started within his monastery at the foot of Mandalay Hills in 2004. In the following years, the service consulted with hundreds of thousands of outpatients, performed tens of thousands of free or low cost eye operations and trained many Mid-Level Ophthalmic Technicians (MLOT). The project has continued to grow, with the help of donations and visiting teams of eye surgeons, technicians and support staff from Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Nepal, and the United States of America. The project has also been responsible for introduction of subspecialty training of local ophthalmologists in vitreoretinal surgery, glaucoma and corneal specialties. In 2010, Dr .H. Kwon Kang (Sydney based Vitreoretinal Surgeon) introduced Vitreoretinal surgery teaching and services to the Wachet Jivitadana Sangha Hospital. During the years 2014-2016, Dr. Judith Newman (Paediatric Ophthalmologist and academic) has also assisted Mandalay Eye and Ear Hospital in training paediatric ophthalmology.

Ongoing Projects
As of December 2017, the MECP has contributed to eleven projects, nine of which are currently running throughout Myanmar. Several outreach projects and charity programs are also being supported by Myanmar Eye Care Project. This service was the original pilot project and continues to function as the principal teaching centre. It is one hour southwest of Mandalay. (See the Wachet Jivitadana Sangha Hospital) Responsibility was handed to the MECP and Mandalay Eye and Ear Hospital by former Minister for Health, the Honourable Professor Pe The Khin. The Eye Bank serves as a repository for donated corneas, which may be stored and transplanted into patients with severe corneal disease. The MECP has facilitated technical training (from Sydney Eye Bank Technician Raj Devashayam) to harvest, assess and store corneas as well as surgical training (from Professor Gerard Sutton) to perform and optimize corneal transplantation. Created in 2003, the MECP has provided equipment for the centre, trained many ophthalmic technicians and has currently recruited two Mandalay surgeons to serve this centre. The centre has become largely self-sufficient with MECP input needed only for equipment maintenance and replacement. Created in 2012, the MECP has provided equipment, training and has organised more than twenty Yangon eye surgeons to operate in their spare time. The centre performs approximately 3000 free cataract operations per year. The MECP has significantly contributed to the surgical resident teaching program at this university affiliated teaching hospital. This includes funding for reaching, teaching accessories, operating microscopes, lasers and other equipment. The centre now performs upto 2400 free or subsidised cataract operations per year and provides valuable training for ophthalmologists in training. Located in North-East Yangon in a highly flood-prone area, the MECP provides Ophthalmic Technicians and has facilitated one full-time and one part time surgeon to service the area. The centre performs 1500 free or subsidised cataract operations per year. In the wake of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the MECP initially established two eye services, which merged into one to serve the people of the Irrawaddy region. The service employs ophthalmic technicians and ophthalmologists to perform 1200 cataract operations per year. The MECP has facilitated the donation of 1000 cataract operations donated in 2013, as well as the donation of specialist equipment. The MECP also provides ongoing support and teaching as required. Requested by the Venerable Sayadaw U Say Keinda (Chief Abbot of the southern Yangon area), the MECP established the service and has employed ophthalmic technicians, provided equipment and arranged for visiting ophthalmologists to service the area. The centre is now independent of MECP. Serving as the principle training and development centre for ophthalmic technicians for the Myanmar Eye Care Project, the hospital is the largest service under the governance of the MECP. This service employs upto eight eye surgeon from Nepal and Laos at any given time and frequently accommodates teams of visiting eye surgeons from Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the United States of America. In 2017, this service is expected to perform over 27,000 free cataract operations. Created in 2015, the MECP has provided equipment for the centre, trained ophthalmic technicians and has currently recruited one surgeon to serve this centre. The centre performs approximately 2000 cataract operations per year. The vast majority of cataract operations are provided free of cost, however some are provided at a significantly reduced cost. Almost all the visiting eye surgeons are university-affiliated with prior teaching experience.
 * Eye Service at the Wachet Jivitadana Sangha Hospital
 * Mandalay Eye Bank
 * Phaung Daw Oo Monastery, Mandalay
 * Yangon Jivitadana Sangha Hospital
 * North Okkalapa General Hospital
 * Thiri Dagon Monastery
 * Phyar Phone
 * Mandalay Eye and Ear Hospital
 * Hmawby Monastery
 * Htee Saung Eye Hospital
 * Pyin Cee Monastery Eye Hospital.

Media references
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/money/investment/profile-geoff-cohn/2010/03/16/1268501456319.html https://www.mivision.com.au/the-gift-that-keeps-giving/

Related Organisations

 * 1) Papua New Guinea Eye Care Project
 * 2) Cambodia Eye Care Project
 * 3) Andhra Pradesh Eye Care Project