🏥The need for pediatric visual health care is universal, but there is a lack of specialized training in Africa and Europe.
The visual system develops primarily from birth until approximately 10 to 12 years of age. A lack of visual development in children not only has an impact on the ability to see, but also on their ability to interact with the world, carry out daily activities and freely choose their future professional life. 40% of the African population is under 14 years old and most of the OCULARIS medical team comes from the Sant Joan de Deu pediatric hospital (Barcelona): it is both natural and necessary that our trainings focus on children eye care. After creating pioneering university training courses in pediatric ophthalmology and optometry in Senegal and Mozambique, we realized that this was only possible thanks to the years of medical practice of our professors in the field. Indeed, there was no specialized training in pediatric optometry as such in our country. In other words, helping African countries has allowed us to improve ours. This is the very essence of international cooperation: working for the common good.
🎓 The result: pioneering training from one of the best European faculties of ophthalmology and optometry.
The FOOT-UPC Pediatric Optometry Master, inaugurated in 2023, is taught by several professionals from the prestigious Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and OCULARIS experts, who bring their extensive experience in optometry. in Europe and in Africa. Registrations for the 2024-25 edition of the program are now open.
🌟 This diploma offers the possibility of an international cooperation experience.
In addition to providing a relevant specialization in the practice of optometry, this master’s degree offers its students the opportunity to devote their final dissertation to an international cooperation experience with OCULARIS. Indeed, several students from the 2023-2024 edition are carrying out their final Master’s project by traveling with our team to Senegal, focusing on issues specific to this region of the world.
