From June 2003 to September 2009, the AECP has completed three tours in Armenia. More than 240,000 people have been screened and over 10,000 sight-saving surgeries and laser treatments have been performed in the Mobile Eye Hospital. Nearly 26,000 eyeglasses have been distributed to the Armenian population all over the country.

Thanks to the professionalism and the sin-cere dedication of AECP specialists working in the “Bringing Sight to Armenian Eyes” ini-tiative, a large number of people in Armenia have recovered their eyesight. Within the scope of the project the AECP Medical teams and the state-of-the-art Mobile Eye Hospital travel throughout Armenia to provide eye care to the population free of charge.

In 2009, the Mobile Eye Hospital visited the regions of Kotayk, Tavush, Lori, and Shirak.More than 19,000 people were examined

and over 1,500 surgeries and laser operations performed.

The AECP began its fourth tour in Armenia in the Aragatsotn region on October 6, 2009. Starting from spring 2010, the AECP medical teams and the Mobile Eye Hospital will travel to the regions of Vayots Dzor, Syunik, Ararat, and Armavir.

As usual, the tour will be accompanied by medical trainings for regional family doctors, who stand at the front line of medical care in Armenian regions. Local physicians will receive up-to-date skills and knowledge to ensure quality services for the population across the country. The first training session as part of the AECP fourth initiative has taken place for 20 local physicians in Ashtarak (Ara-gartsotn).

With the Mobile Eye Hospital garaged for the winter following its travels throughout the regions, the AECP medical teams provide services in Yerevan. In order to reach out to children and other vulnerable groups the

In thIs Issue - 2009 results and 2010 plans - Donating to AECP:

Adopt-A-Village/School- Highlights 2009: - Celebrating World Sight Day in Armenia - Data analysis and research: Gender disaggre-gation of AECP data on eye diseases - The Gift of Sight: Opening the doors to hope

- AECP 32nd Medical Mis-sion to Armenia

The Mobile Eye Hospital

medical teams visit schools, kindergartens, and charitable organizations functioning in Yerevan. Eye care trainings are provided for nurses working in schools and kindergar-tens to make sure that medical personnel detect eye diseases among children at an early stage.

This winter the AECP has already been providing services in the community of Davitashen, and in February and March of 2010 the AECP will be working in Erebuni in Yerevan.

Founded in 1992, in the United States by an American-Armenian ophthalmologist Roger Ohanesian, M.D., the Armenian EyeCare Project (AECP) is a California based nonprofit corporation dedicated to the elimination of preventable blindness in Armenia. In 2003, the AECP established an office in Yerevan and launched its seven-year initiative, “Bringing Sight to Armenian Eyes.” The Initiative has five comprehensive, integrated components developed to eliminate preventable blindness. They include direct patient care, medical education and training, public education, research and capacity building. The AECP has been a USAID partner since 2004.

Results of the AeCP 2009 mission And PRosPeCts foR 2010

electronic bulletin

Volume 4, issue 2Fall 2009

bringing

sight to armenian eyesthe armenian eyecare project

aygestan 5, house 7yerevan, armeniaphone (374 10) 55 90 68fax (374 10) 57 76 94aecp@cornet.am

p.o. box 5630newport beach, ca 92662phone 949.675.5767 fax 949 673.2356aecp@eyecareproject.com

www.eyecareproject.com

As a devoted member of the United Nations Women’s Guild, Ms. Annette A. Hayrapetian lives by the motto, “Working for the welfare of needy children throughout the world”.

Children of Nerkin Sasunashen decided to thank the contributors to the eye screening in their school with drawings. They wanted to present their friends from the United States with treasures of the motherland such as Mount Ararat, Armenian khachqars, and Armenian tulips.

Rouzanna Malkhasyan, 8, asked to pass her song “Mayrik” to people, who helped check their eyes in the orphanage and made this action possible.

2 AeCP eleCtronIC BulletIn Volume 4, issue 2 Fall 2009

donAting to AeCP: AdoPt-A-VillAge/sChoolMaking a difference in people’s lives

In this issue, we would like to highlight activities in the villages and orphanages that benefited from the Adopt-a-Village/School program in the fall of 2009. The program envisions targeted donations for screening and treatment in specific locations/institutions.

Jrarat Village, Shirak Region

September 4, 2009

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Ms. Dianne Der Boghosian, 98 people in Jrarat village were screened. Of those people 57 were diagnosed with refraction problems (nearsighted, farsighted) and all received new eyeglasses. One patient required a surgical laser procedure on both eyes in the AECP Mobile Eye Hospital.

Yerevan Children’s Home, Yerevan

September 8, 2009

Ms. Annette A. Hayrapetian’s donation helped the AECP visit the Yerevan Children’s Home. The medical group examined 71 children and identified 12 with eye prob-lems.

Nerkin Sasunashen, Aragatsotn Region

September 23, 2009

Eye screening in Nerkin Sasunashen was generously sponsored by the Western Diocese Armenian Church Summer Camp. Two AECP medical teams visited the village with one team examining 99 children at the local school and a second team examining 48 adults in the village’s medical center. The AECP doctors referred 14 patients to the Mobile Eye Hospital for further evaluation and seven of those required surgical procedures.

Marie Izmirlyan Special Orphanage, Yerevan

November 3, 2009

Thanks to a donation from Ms. Laura Berger, 44 children had eye examinations. The direc-tor said this was the first eye screening at the orphanage in many years and the most com-plete and professional eye examination for the children.

Your donation brings hope and

changes lives.

“gendeR And eye heAlth” - WoRld sight dAy 2009October 8, 2009

45 mIllIon people worldwide are blind, and 269 million are visually impaired. Nearly two-thirds of those people are women or girls.

Along with events taking place in more than 50 countries worldwide, the Armenian EyeCare Project (AECP) participated in this year’s World Sight Day (WSD) theme “Gender & Eye Health.” It is a crucial topic because nearly two-thirds of blind people worldwide are women and girls. In several countries

women have considerable limitations accessing eye care compared to men.

Along these lines, a joint action of the AECP, the Republic of Armenia Ministries of Justice and Health, and USAID was taken to raise awareness and to provide medical assistance to women in detention.

On October 8, the AECP medical group visited Abovyan Penitentiary. They examined 103 women and 17 teenagers, and prescribed medical treatment.

“According to global research data, equal access to eye care could substantially reduce blindness in low income countries,” said AECP Country director Nune Yeghiazaryan. She noted that according to the Project’s 2003-2007 data, women con-stitute over 50 percent of AECP beneficiaries, which indicates that overall they have enjoyed equal access to the services provided by the AECP. Of the 130,000 examined by the AECP, 73,832 patients (56.8 percent) were women and of the 5,645 surgical cases in the AECP Mobile Eye Hospital, 2,935 (52 per-cent) were women.. “This year we decided to help the women

who have more limitations in their access to eye care and live in a stressful environment,” Yeghiazaryan said.

The chief ophthalmologist of Armenia, Professor Alexander Malayan, arrived in person at the penitentiary to check the quality of conducted examinations.

Brochures describing basic eye diseases, their symptoms and explaining eye care procedures that prevent blindness were also distributed. AECP specialist delivered a special presentation to strengthen the knowledge of imprisoned women on basic eye diseases and symptoms. Prisoners at the Abovian penitentiary are aged 20-72, but mainly there are middle-aged women who are in jail for committing different types of crimes including trafficking and theft.

In 2008, the AECP collaborated with the Department of Criminal-Executive Institutions of the RA Ministry of Justice. Medical teams visited several prisons, screened more than 1,000 inmates and provided 782 pairs of new eyeglasses.

The event was covered by Armenian media which helped to raise awareness of the themes of World Sight Day 2009.

Maria loves her mom very much.

Dear Friends,

One rarely meets this type of charity. Sometimes you encounter yourself in a hopeless situation, and doors to hope open

when you don’t expect anything at all. And you become happy when everything is changing, changing for the better. I

would like to thank heartily the Armenian EyeCare Project, all of those people who contributed and made this surgery

possible. I would love to mention all their names, but I know only a few of them. We are very pleased and delighted with

the attitude presented by the AECP, which was transferred similarly to the doctors at the Malayan Eye Center.

Many thanks indeed.

Yours sincerely,

Anahit Mkrtchyan November 25, 2009, Yereven, Armenia

“I have 2 children: Narek, 13, and Maria, 6. I am the only breadwinner in this family. My husband left us when Maria was a baby. Currently I do not have a permanent employment. I do odd jobs to be able to feed my children and to at least ensure their survival,” Anahit Mktchyan said, telling us about her family.

Maria Hovsepian lives with her mother and brother in the Southwestern com-munity of Yerevan (it is commonly called Bangladesh, maybe for its remoteness from the center). She likes to read, write, draw, and knows many poems. Maria draws equally well with her right and left hand and is a very bright child. She is going to school and is determined to study with straight As.

Maria had strabis-mus. She was referred to AECP through a donor and was oper-ated on both eyes; now all her symptoms of strabismus are gone. When Maria was 3 and-a-half years old her mother noticed that both of her daughter’s eyes periodically changed their angle of vision. She took the child to eye doctors

who advised patching and then apparatus treatment, which did not improve the situa-tion. According to doctors the only solution for Maria was the surgery.

Anahit realized the urgency of the situ-ation but could do nothing. She is bringing up her children alone, has no job and could

not afford any “additional” expenses. She had been postponing the surgery, hoping that there will be a miracle and that some-thing would help her child. Anahit perma-nently felt the burden of her incapability of

helping her daughter and could do nothing but hope for better times and a miracle.

Time passed, and Anahit realized that there was not much time left - surgery was needed, otherwise she could be too late to take steps to correct Maria’s vision.

Maria was the best at reciting poems at the Farewell ball at her kinder-garten, but she was shy and hardly ever raised her eyes. The donor of the kindergar-ten saw her and decided to help. He contacted the AECP, explained the situation and Maria received a referral for a free diagnosis and surgery at the Malayan Eye Center.

Anahit was unable to explain how she felt when she saw that Maria’s eyes were getting better. “You should feel this. You should feel when hope comes true,” she said.

Looking at Maria now it is difficult to imagine how unhappy she was and how often she asked her mother not to take her to kindergar-ten because the other chil-dren laughed at her crossed eyes. She did not like to play

with other children at that time. But now she says she has many friends and is full of plans for her future.

Data Analysis & ResearchGender disaggregation of AECP data on eye diseases

In line with the focus of the World Sight Day 2009, the AECP presents research findings on gender specifics of eye diseases among AECP beneficiaries.

Research and Analysis is an important com-ponent of the Project’s Five-Point Initiative to eliminate preventable blindness and to provide access to eyecare for all Armenians. As part of the research component the AECP has devel-oped a database of 130,000 individuals (adults and children) screened from 2003 through 2007. Analysis of the data reveals that 56.8 percent of individuals screened during this time period were female.

The data on about 71, 000 screened adults (over 16 years old) shows that men are more likely than women to have eye and vision prob-lems.

Out of 71,000 screened adults nearly 44 percent (31,236 people) were revealed having at least one serious eye disease or disorder (including glaucoma, cataract, corneal and fundus disorders and diseases). In the group of the screened women this figure was lower: 41 percent, while among men it comprised 49 percent.

Comparison of prevalence of mentioned seri-ous eye diseases among the screened male and female adult population (see the diagram) shows that screened female beneficiaries had better eye health characteristics.

A letter to the AECP from Anahit Mkrtchyan

3 AeCP eleCtronIC BulletIn Volume 4, issue 2 Fall 2009

the gift of sightOpening the Doors to Hope

“I am telling you. I am reborn!” Lusik Yeritsyan (Tavush region) proclaims there are few things that can change an individual’s life as radically as restoring sight.

For 6 years Lusik Yeritsyan suf-fered from preventable blindness because of cataract in both eyes that was removed by the AECP doctors through sight-restoring surgery .

“I need eyes to help others”, almost blinded 64-year-old Flora Vardanyan (Yerevan) confessed to the AECP doc-tors before her cataract surgery.

Blindness was another challenge for Flora: she was the only bread-winner for her and her bedridden husband.

After the operation Flora Vardan-yan was feeling well and was happy to share emotions about her garden. “When I opened my eyes I saw how abandoned my garden was. But soon my garden blossomed again. Just like me after surgery!”

After the screening 78 year-old Jasmine Stepanyan (Yerevan) received eye glasses from the Arme-nian EyeCare Project. “I learnt about the upcoming eye screening from the Soup Kitchen staff and was very excited about the opportunity to check my vision,” – she said.

Jasmine does not have a family and survives on a pension of less than $30 per month making it extremely difficult to pay for the daily basics, let alone a doctor’s visit. For many needy people this is the only chance to receive eye care.

Women and the AECP

8.2

18.3

32.6

5.5

16.6

26.6

7.9

10.4

0 10 20 30 40 50

Glaucoma

Fundusdisorders and

diseases

Cataract

Cornealdisorders and

diseases

Men Women

People over 50 are more vulnerable regard-ing their eye health. Based on the produced prevalence of main eye diseases, AECP devel-oped the methodology for calculating an “Eye health Vulnerability Index” (EVI) for 50+ years old screened population. People of that age having at least one of the mentioned diseases and disorders were considered as having vul-nerable eye health. According to AECP estima-tions, every second beneficiary (50%) in this age group had vulnerable eye health. Never-theless, among AECP female beneficiaries over 50 the EVI is slightly lower: 48.8%, while for male beneficiaries it comprises 54.4%. Thus, the eye health characteristics of AECP 50+ female beneficiaries are better.

AECP male and female adult beneficiaries having eye diseases, %

Meeting Patients

AECP physicians were looking forward to seeing their patients first. These were people desperately seeking hope and advice or look-ing forward to hearing about recent news in ophthalmology.

During this mission Dr. Anthony Aldave and Dr. John Hovanesian examined about 80 patients at the Malayan Eye Center. The medi-cal personnel of the Center highly appreci-ated their help in performing about 10 sur-geries. Due to the continuous involvement of the AECP physicians from the U.S., the Armenian ophthalmologists practice inno-vative surgical techniques now: for example, the endothelial keratoplasty was used in two cases this time.

4 AeCP eleCtronIC BulletIn Volume 4, issue 2 Fall 2009

Meeting Colleagues

One of the main objectives of the AECP is to systematically bring to Armenia all available new methods and technologies in modern ophthalmology. AECP physicians gave presen-tations to the Malayan Eye Center personnel about available research on crystal lenses and recent breakthroughs in surgical techniques practiced in the United States.

A talented Armenian singer, Gohar Nersisyan is among AECP’s regular patients. At age 3, Goharik was diagnosed with uveitis, an eye dis-ease that causes glaucoma. Her life is filled with surgeries, treatment, and check-ups. Despite the frequent operations and the possibility that she can go blind, she remains optimistic. Goharik has to undergo yet another surgery to remove a cataract on her right eye which will probably be in May, 2010.

Practical exercises followed the theoreti-cal session of the conference at the Wet Lab established by the AECP at the Malayan Eye Center. AECP president shared his skills with young Armenian doctors.

“The bad carpenter always blames his tools,” Dr. Ohanesian said while explaining to young-er specialists the realities of being a high-class professional by perennially developing his or her skills.

A Major ProjectCombating retinopathy of prematurity

(ROP) is one of the emerging priorities for the AECP program. Being entrusted by the Ministry of Health with a very interesting and challenging task of establishing a nationwide ROP program in Armenia, the AECP manage-ment invited interested parties to a seminar/discussion dedicated to ROP problems in Armenia.

The meeting took place at the Educational Center of the Malayan Eye Center, established by the AECP, with representatives of pediatric ophthalmologists and neonatal rehabilita-tion specialists from different hospitals of Yerevan.

Though it is difficult to present exact sta-tistics on the number of premature babies who have ROP in Armenia, the need for such a nationwide program is evident. Moreover, there is a definite growth tendency of this

disease. No concrete actions have presently been taken due to a lack of officially adopted protocols and procedures. A nationwide pro-gram, involving both prevention and treat-ment phases will secure timely monitoring of ROP and treatment, if necessary.

Among the planned actions is the launch of a telemedicine program, which would secure consultations of the U.S. top professionals in ROP to assist the Armenian doctors fight-ing productively against ROP. In order for the ROP nationwide program to function at its full potential, a very expensive diagnostics camera must be brought to Armenia, which will help establish direct electronic data exchange with one of the world’s leading specialists working in the United States, Dr. Thomas Lee.

The AECP emphasizes the importance of uniform regulations for all relevant institu-tions as well as the establishment of a unique center comprising all necessary equipment for the diagnoses and treatment of ROP. These are very important factors, because large amounts of funds will be invested in the pro-gram. As a result, a working group comprised of Armenian specialists was set up to provide necessary data and recommendations to start a nationwide program in Armenia.

Looking ForwardThe next medical mission is planned for

May of 2010, with an international conference on ROP as its highlight. The AECP has impres-sive accomplishments and ambitious plans. As AECP president said, “This project has been around for nearly 20 years and I expect that it will continue, even knowing that doctors are becoming self-reliant with much better abilities here in Armenia. We expect that we will continue working and coming to Armenia with the best American specialists to assist the doctors here. It becomes expensive to continue the Mobile Eye Hospital and to continue our programs and I just hope that the Diaspora recognizes the benefit that we are providing and continues to support the program so that we can continue our work in preventing blindness in this little country.”

looking foRWARd to neW ChAllengesAECP 32nd Medical Mission to Armenia — November, 2009Thanks to the on-going initiative of the Armenian EyeCare Project (AECP), American physicians visit Armenia on a semi-annual basis to transfer the know-how and skills in ophthalmology to their Armenian colleagues. Since 1992, more than 50 U.S. ophthalmologists have traveled to Armenia to train Armenian doctors and treat patients.

About 20 patients with very complex cases were referred by the AECP and many more by the Malayan Eye Center to Dr. Roger Ohane-sian for examination. According to him, “The diseases that I see in Armenia, I never see in the United States. And one of the reasons is that many times the patient has waited for a long time to get treatment. There just seems to be a large amount of pathology that we see here in Armenia, which I don’t see in my private practice in the U.S.”

Dr. Anthony J. Aldave and AECP fellow Dr. Anna Hovakimyan

Dr. John A. Hovanesian delivering a presenta-tion about modern advances in use of crystal lenses.

Vardan, 4, lost his vision because of a home injury. He and his siblings were playing with a knife and their game ended in tragedy. The child had a surgery performed on his right eye. After the examination little Vardan seemed not to have any serious problems.

This was the 32nd medical mission to Armenia organized by the AECP. Dr. John Hovanesian, Dr. Anthony Aldave and AECP president Dr. Roger Ohanesian examined a large number of patients, consulted cases and delivered lectures on the advances in ophthalmology. In addition, this trip was aimed at monitoring the ongoing activities of the AECP and strategizing their new directions.

Dr. Geroge Bohigian Dr. John Griffin Dr. Richard Hill

Dr. John Griffin and Dr. Basilio Kalpakian Dr. Anthony Aldave, Dr. Sarkis Soukiasian and Dr. Larry Najarian

Dr. Baruch Kuppermann

Both adults and children were examined during this mission.