Sightsavers: Protecting sight and fighting for disability rights

Can you imagine how heartbreaking it would be not to see family or friends?

Globally 253 million people are blind or visually impaired yet 75 percent of blindness could be cured or prevented. Blindness has a devastating effect on people’s lives. Children miss out on their education. Parents are unable to work and support their families. People become isolated from their communities, trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty.

Cataract surgeons performing a sight-saving operation

At Sightsavers we think this is shockingly unfair, so we are doing something about it.

Founded by Sir John Wilson in 1950, Sightsavers has been at the forefront of saving and restoring the sight of people in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Our vision is of a world where avoidable blindness has been eliminated, and people with visual impairments and other disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else. Working with local partners in over 30 countries across Africa and Asia, to date Sightsavers has supported 6.9 million cataract operations, distributed over 1 billion treatments to prevent debilitating diseases and trained 224,000 people with disabilities to help them earn a living.

Children waiting to have their bandages removed, following cataract surgery

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognises eye-care treatment as some of the most cost-effective of all healthcare interventions. It only costs £30 to transform an adult’s life with sight-restoring cataract surgery. This means your support has a greater impact on more lives than many equivalent medical or social care projects.

Zamurrad Bibi’s has her bandage removed a day after her cataract operation as her daughter Rania and niece Ramsha look on, at the LRBT Hospital in Mandra, Pakistan.

For more information on Sightsavers’ please visit www.sightsavers.org