Americas

cbm in Latin America supports 92 projects, administrated by Regional Offices located in Ecuador, Mexico and Haiti, focusing on the prevention of blindness (VISION 2020), education and rehabilitation, community-based rehabilitation (CBR), prevention of deafness, vocational training and other mandate areas.

Programs in South America started in 1972 with a cbm-supported project in Peru. Our Latin American Regional Office (LARO), and coordination office in Mexico together cover Central and Latin America. cbm has a total of 143 Project Partners in the region, covering Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

In response to the earthquake in January 2010, several new projects will be supported in Haiti in cooperation with other non-governmental organizations (NGOs). A cbm coordination office exists in Port-au-Prince for this purpose.

In Bolivia, a network spanning five cbm-supported projects in the area of deafness has been created to increase prevention of deafness and to strengthen the rights and integration of persons with hearing impairment. The first study on prevalence of deafness carried out in Latin America at the national level was supported in Ecuador in 2009, together with the World Health Organization (WHO).