The partnership project, named African Creativity for Eyesight (ACE) will be led by an experienced multi-disciplinary team. Recognising the need for community involvement and co-developing eye health education strategies, Chan aims to expand the existing partnership from Zanzibar to mainland Tanzania, possibly to Zambia, to form a multi-disciplinary, multi-national and multi-national multicultural partnership. In 2019, we began our partnership with the Ministry of Health in Zanzibar and developed the Zanzibar Arts for Children’s Eyesight (ZANZI-ACE) initiative. Subsequently, we secured funding to begin the ZANZI-ACE trial in 2023. We aim to replicate this process in Tanzania and Zambia. Through multi-sectoral engagement in the ACE project, we will co-develop an arts-based eye health education strategy, which utilises a package of a musical piece, free-hand animation and voice drama to overcome socio-cultural barriers towards service uptake, hence improving eye health-seeking behaviour and improving the vulnerable populations’ vision and well-being.

We will conduct the workshop in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The workshop will be facilitated by experienced researcher facilitators and our local partners, Dr Frank Albert and Mr Eden Mashayo.

Three main activities include:

1. Partner and public engagement workshops.
2. Arts competition and judging sessions
3. Validation of health promotion messages.