Evaluation of Orbis India’s Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Vision Impairment in School-Going Children

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The purpose of this workshop was to conduct a process evaluation of Orbis India’s Refractive Error Among Children (REACH) school vision screening program – including an accompanying software called REACHSoft – in order to understand how the model was implemented at three project sites in Chennai, Madurai, and Pune. Thirty-three interviews with REACH staff members, teachers, and partners were conducted across all three sites and impact stories from parents and teachers were collected using the Most Significant Change Light method. The SIPA team found that REACH was a resource-intensive model with significant logistical and referral challenges, but also a flexible and adaptable model that allowed hospital partners to deploy human and financial resources to suit their unique context. Recommendations included paring down the resource-intensive nature of REACH, facilitating learning across partners, and establishing Orbis India as a thought leader in eHealth innovation and school-based vision screenings.