The acronym VISSION stands for Voluntary Integrated Sight Saving Initiative of Nigeria. a duly registered nonprofit initiative to facilitate the incorporation of universal eye care into the work of mass medical mission (mmm).
This is in alignment with the call of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) for countries to implement ‘integrated people centred eye care (IPCEC)’ to reduce the numbers of people living with vision impairment and blindness.
According to IAPB, advancing on eye health within Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and strengthened health systems is essential to promote, scale-up and better reach those most in need. This means ensuring that eye health is incorporated into schemes to progress on UHC and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.8. As a key organ of the body, there is no universal health coverage without eye health and WHO have made clear that Universal Health Coverage cannot be universal without affordable, accessible, high quality comprehensive eye care.
The importance of IPCEC is underscored by the fact that globally, there are an estimated 43 million blind people, at least 2.2 billion people currently have a vision impairment, and of these, at least 1 billion people with vision impairment have no access to essential eye care. This is estimated to cost the global economy over US$411 billion every year in lost productivity and health and social care whereas only US$25 billion is required to address the gap for tackling unaddressed refractive errors and cataract globally. Sadly, deep inequities persist in who bears the burden of visual impairment and who can access care—often determined by socio-economic status, geography, and gender. Critically, these figures are projected to rise as population growth and ageing place even more people at risk.
To combat this scandalous situation, mass medical mission (mmm) has been incorporating preventive eye care into its community-based health outreaches since 2006. This eye aspect of mmm’s programme is called PinkVISSION. With 2030 in sight, we are committed to ending Avoidable Sight Loss.
PinkVISSION is related to the objective of mass medical mission and its umbrella cancer programme, National Cancer Prevention Programme (NCPP), in the following ways:
1. The life expectancy of blind persons is 1/3 less than that of their sighted peers. Preserving the vision of an individual, therefore leads to improvement of his life expectancy. This is in line with the mission of mass medical mission (visit www.massmedicalmission.org).
2. Several general health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, HIV/AIDS, among others, manifest in the eye and can be diagnosed by eye examination.
3. Cancer and noncancerous tumors occur in the eye, known as ocular tumor.
4. Cancer from other parts of the body can spread to the eye, known as (ocular or eye metastasis). Eye metastasis are usually from breast cancer (in women) and lung cancer (in men). Other less common sites of origin include the prostate, the kidney, the thyroid, and gastrointestinal tract.
5. Cancer of other parts of the body such as the brain, can be diagnosed through eye evaluation.
VISION
To facilitate the achievement of Universal Eye Health in Nigeria by institutionalizing integrated community – based preventive eye care, thereby preserving vision and saving lives …. one Person, one Family, and one Community at a time!
MISSION
To Promote holistic Eye Health Through Sacrificial Ministry
SLOGAN
…Preserving Vision, Saving Lives!
PinkVISSION aims to achieve this goal by deploying the mobile ophthalmic unit (a.k.a the PinkVISSION, to complement the community-based outreaches carried out with the Mobile Cancer Centres – the PinkCruise (visit www.pinkcruise.org), thereby taking preventive eye care to the doorsteps of Nigerians.
This community-based eye-care aspect of the mobile health mission of mmm is known as Mission PinkVISSION.
OUR BRAND
The major colour of PinkVISSION is “Pink”. The other supplementary colour is green.
SYMBOLIC MEANING OF THE PinkVISSION COLOURS
The colour pink refers not only to breast cancer but to health in general, hence the phrase ‘in the pink of health.’ For instance, a pink palpebral conjunctival of the eye indicates that an individual is healthy and has a good blood level.
In the context of PinkVISSION, pink stands for an healthy eye. A healthy optic disc is referred to as pink. A healthy retina is pink and flat.
On the other hand, if the retina is detached or if there is obstruction (including cataract and eye tumors) in the visual axis the healthy glow from within the eye becomes opaque with resultant loss of vision and / or even life.
The colour green, symbolizes eye cancer and vision impairment awareness.