Recently, Dualta Roughneen, CEO of CBM Global Ireland, which works to advance disability inclusion and the prevention of avoidable blindness across many regions including Africa and Asia, spoke with Know The Glow’s Co-Founder Megan Webber, Director of Global Outreach Helene Dameris, and Africa Program Manager Ruth Ngaruiya about CBM’s programs, including community eye screening programs in Madagascar, one of the most ambitious child eye health initiatives currently underway on the island.
Based in Dublin, Dualta leads CBM Ireland’s efforts to raise awareness of global eye health and build support for the organization’s work overseas. Much of that work centers on convening eye health companies, professionals, and policymakers in Ireland to keep global vision loss on the national radar, alongside ongoing engagement with government on overseas aid priorities.
That advocacy work feeds directly into programs like the one CBM Global runs in Madagascar, where the Arclight, a compact eye-screening tool developed for use in low-resource settings, has become a core part of community health outreach. Health workers and midwives are trained to use it during routine visits, catching eye conditions early, often at the same appointment where a child is being vaccinated, rather than waiting for a problem to become visible enough for a family to seek care on their own.
The results, even from a single region, have been striking. In the last eighteen months alone, close to 100,000 children have been screened, uncovering roughly 700 cases requiring some form of eye care, ranging from easily treated conditions like conjunctivitis to more serious diagnoses. Among them were more than fifteen cases of retinoblastoma, several already successfully treated, a number Dualta noted is only the beginning given that the program has so far reached just one of Madagascar’s regions.
Once a child is identified with a possible issue, the path to treatment often means traveling from rural health centers to the regional eye hospital, and for the most serious cases, on to the capital for specialized care. Dualta described the layers of support this requires beyond medical treatment alone, from transport and accommodation for families to psychosocial support for children and parents navigating a frightening diagnosis. He shared the story of one young girl whose retinoblastoma was caught in time to save her life, though not her eye. Her family, he said, remains grateful and close to the program, a reminder that even outcomes that fall short of perfect can still mean everything to the people living them.
Dualta also spoke about the barriers that keep some families from seeking care at all, including limited awareness of what certain visible eye symptoms can mean, and in some communities, a deeper hesitancy around hospitals rooted in longstanding cultural beliefs and trust in traditional healing practices. Overcoming that hesitancy, he noted, is as much a part of the work as the screening itself.
Ruth was fortunate to previously connect with Jaona Iandrinirina, CBM Global’s Inclusive Eye Health Advisor for Madagascar, and Know The Glow looks forward to meeting with the Madagascar team soon. Know The Glow is grateful to Dualta Roughneen and the CBM team for the work they are doing to bring early detection to children across Madagascar and other parts of the world, and looks forward to following the program’s continued growth as it expands into other new regions in the years ahead.
To learn more about CBM Ireland’s work, please visit www.cbm.ie
