KENYA: IEF establishes the “Kenya Rural Blindness Prevention Project” (KRBPP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and funded by USAID 1976-1984.

Phase I: 1976-1980:

• Dr. Randolph Whitfield, IEF Country Director, Provincial Eye Surgeon-Ministry of Health, Nyeri, Central Province
• Dr. Larry Schwab, IEF Deputy Country Director, Provincial Eye Surgeon-Ministry of Health, Nakuru, Rift Valley Province
• Jack Swartwood, IEF Project Manager, Nairobi

Phase II: 1980-1984:

• Dr. Randolph Whitfield, IEF Country Director, Provincial Eye Surgeon-Ministry of Health, Nyeri, Central Province
• Dr. Paul G. Steinkuller, IEF Deputy Country Director, Provincial Eye Surgeon-Ministry of Health, Nakuru, Rift Valley Province
• R. Douglass Arbuckle, Project Manager, Nairobi
• Dennis Ross-Degnan followed by Dr. F.M. Mburu, Project Epidemiologists, Nairobi
• Victoria M. Sheffield, Field Training Specialist, Nairobi

Eight blindness prevalence surveys are designed and led by Dennis Ross-Degnan and Dr. F.M. Mburu between 1976 and 1984 among the nine major tribes of Kenya (excluding Nairobi) constituting the first national blindness prevalence study in an African nation. V. Sheffield established primary eye care programs training hundreds of general physicians, nurses, and clinical officers in primary eye care and blindness prevention, and trained a Kenyan Ophthalmic Clinical Officer to replace her.

Dr. Whitfield recognized as a McArthur Foundation Fellow in 1982 receiving a MacArthur Genius Grant for his work to define the prevalence, causes, and distribution of visual loss among persons dwelling in rural Kenya, to provide eye care to rural dwellers by expanding existing mobile and community eye care facilities in the country, and to train African paramedics to perform eye surgery.

Dr. J.H. King, Jr. receives a signed letter from President Gerald R. Ford acknowledging IEF’s value and critical service to mankind.

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