The issue

Blindness - stark statistics of an avoidable disaster

Every five seconds, one more person somewhere in the world goes blind.

Every minute, one more child goes blind – 60% of these children will die within a year of going blind.

There are 45 million blind people in the world - 90% of them living in the developing countries. There are a further 314 million people who have a serious form of visual impairment. Many are the poorest of the poor, without access to eye care or money to pay for treatment.

Without immediate, effective action - the number of blind people worldwide will rocket to 76 million people by 2020.

But 80% of blindness can be avoided - it can be prevented, treated and even cured.

Restoring sight is one of the cheapest ways to make a really tangible difference to the lives of people in need. Just US$30 pays for a simple eye operation that can cure blindness from cataracts, the world's leading cause of avoidable blindness. Sight-preserving vitamin A tablets cost as little as 5 cents - and play a vital role in preventing childhood blindness. Up to 153 million of the people whose vision is seriously impaired could have their sight saved or corrected simply by giving them a pair of spectacles or contact lenses.  Indeed, 8 million people are functionally blind simply for lack of a pair of specs.

Seeing is Believing brings together the expertise, the knowledge and the commitment to tackle the challenge. But we need your help and to do it.

The Impacts of Avoidable Blindness

Avoidable blindness is not just a health issue, it is an economic issue.

For many, going blind can mean the end of their education, or the loss of their job, their livelihood, their personal and economic independence.

Whole families, whole communities are affected. Children are removed from schools to permanently care for their elders; sisters kept at home to look after their brothers. Scarce social resources are used to deal with chronic disabilities. Communities are deprived of the productivity of both the cared for and the carers.  This is all the more acute, given that 90% of avoidable blindness occurs in developing countries.  It becomes a vicious circle of poverty and reduced resources to deal with health issues.

Restoring someone’s sight can enable that person to be economically productive and independent. It liberates carers to go back to work, or attend education. It means social resources can be used to bring relief to other people in need.  Research in Kenya, Bangladesh and Philippines has shown that following cataract surgery, household income can increase by as much as 33%.

Research estimates the global savings from tackling avoidable blindness could be as much as US$223 billion over 20 years. Through Seeing is Believing, we can empower communities to become more productive, more sustainable, and help break out of the cycle of blindness and poverty.

Gender & Eye Health

Two-thirds of blind people worldwide are women and girls -  80% of them live in the developing world.

But men are twice as likely to access eye-care services as women.

Females of all ages across the world have a much higher risk of being visually impaired than males. The reasons are complex and vary from place to place.  However, salient factors include longer life expectancy, cultural constraints on the mobility of women, lack of awareness and education about possible treatment and straightforwardly inappropriate services.

Equal access to eye care could substantially reduce blindness in poor countries .

Seeing is Believing and our expert eye care partners are working to overcome barriers to eye-care services and improve equal access for women and men.

This is a key part of our commitment to provide access to eye care for 20 million people, living in deprived areas of 20 cities by 2014.