Nepalese Association of Optometrists, a non-for-profit organization, is a professional alliance of Nepalese optometrists. NAO works for the professional welfare of optometrists in Nepal. We were founded in 2003 by the first graduates’ optometrists, from the Institute of Medicine, Maharajgunj Medical Campus, Tribhuvan University, the pioneer institute of optometry education in Nepal.

The association seats at the High-Level Committee for Eye health at the Ministry of Health and Population Nepal. The high-level committee is the steering committee for eye health policy making.

NAO is the official member of World Council of Optometrists and Asia-Pacific Council of Optometry. NAO works for the welfare of Nepalese optometrists through means of:

Advocacy

NAO has been advocating for the recognition and establishment of the role of optometrists in delivering quality and accessible eye care services. NAO played a significant role in advocating for integration of eye health in the mainstream health system of Nepal. The advocacy activities include coordination and consultation meetings with stakeholders, submitting letters, organizing campaigns and celebrating World Sight Day and World Optometry Day.

Academia

NAO supports the academic skills of optometrists by organizing regular conferences, seminars and Continuing Optometry Education (COE) sessions. We organised the first All Nepal Optometry Conference in Oct 2018. Various COEs include special contact lens, Binocular Single Vision, Low Vision, Ocular Prosthesis.

Accessible eye care service

NAO thrives for providing quality accessible eye care services by supporting regular eye camps, collaborating for establishing and running eye care centers in different parts of the country. In 2022/23, we collaborated with the community in Nala-Shera to open an eye care center and with local government Gokarneshwor municipality to start an eye unit at Gokarneshwor Nagar Hospital.

Advisory support

NAO provides advisory support on eye health. Some instances are:

• We developed Guidelines for online classes in Nepal owing to the effects of prolonged digital device use on eye health at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and Ministry of Health in 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic.
• The then spokesperson Dipak Kumar Sah did a press briefing at the Ministry of Health and population on the occasion of World Sight Week on Oct 5, 2020 about the effects of online classes on eye health. He was the first among all the eye health professionals in the country to conduct such a press briefing at the prestigious platform of the country. The regular press briefing used to be on COVID cases update during the COVID 19 restriction, which lasted from Apr 2020 to Feb 2023.
• NAO has also placed its important role during the consultation meetings and formulation of National Health Policy 2019, National Eye Health Strategy, National Health Technology Product Directives, Standards on home-based health service providers, National Health Sector Support Program, Standards on eye health services, National Standards on Assistive Technology etc.

Awareness

We engage with the general public relaying awareness messages on optometry practice and eye health through social media, online news, media interviews, newspaper articles and so on. You can find some of them here.