RAWALPINDI (Online)- Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Rawalpindi has been awarded a special project 'Enabling Persons with Disabilities to Use Telecom Services' to increase accessibility of IT and telecom for people with visual impairment. The project was launched with the help of Universal Service Fund (USF). Ministry of Information Technology celebrated the World Telecommunication and Information Technology day last week with the theme 'Connecting Persons with Disabilities: ICT Opportunities for all' with special focus on the disabled community in collaboration with International Telecommunication Union and ICT equipment manufacturers for obtaining special ICT equipment that are being used in the developed world. In this connection, proposals were invited from organisations dealing with disabilities in the country out of them two organisation were selected and awarded the project under USF. "Al-Shifa Tust Eye Hospital is one of the organisations, which was awarded the project keeping in view its profound services and its fight against blindness," said Chief Executive Officer USF Parvez Iftikhar. He said that the project aimed at expanding and upgrading the low vision and rehabilitation centre at Al-Shifa Trust. Under the projects Al-Shifa will expand and upgrade its existing low vision and rehabilitation Centre at its Rawalpindi hospital and at the same time replicate the same facility in its Kohat and Sukkur Hospital. Talking to the media persons, President Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Lt Gen (Retd) Jahan Dad Khan said that Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital is working for prevention and cure of blindness. He said that Al-Shifa Trust established its low vision rehabilitation centre for the first time in Pakistan in 1993 and since then has been providing tertiary specialist services for referrals from all over the country. He observed that approximately 1,000 new cases of low vision are referred every year to Al-Shifa's Low Vision Clinic at Rawalpindi. The existing set up of Low Vision Rehabilitation Centre in Rawalpindi requires upgradation to facilitate the LV patients with the latest techniques and equipment. The experts in information technology and computer engineering have devised new software through which the low vision and blind people can be trained well. We wish to introduce such software and IT related equipment here in our set up, Said President Al-Shifa Trust   Based on these objectives, Al-Shifa is now developing a comprehensive centre for the visual rehabilitation along with all modern devices and equipment to help the visually impaired people. He said that Al-Shifa would also establish a low vision centre at Kohat, Quetta and Muzaffarabad on the lines of Rawalpindi and Sukkur Low Vision Units.