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Blindness is a major urban health threat to millions living in slums, according to development NGO Sightsavers and partner Standard Chartered Bank, who are speaking out on World Health Day (7 April) which this year turns the focus on urban health. Over one billion people now live in slums across the globe*, and despite the abject poverty and lack of facilities, migration to such urban areas is still increasing.

The speed of urbanization has outpaced the ability of governments to build essential health services. This means people do not have access to primary eye care services such as eye tests, spectacles or cataract operations. With disease, malnutrition, lack of water and sanitation all contributing to sight loss in slums, the economic impact of eye conditions on individuals, families and communities is devastating. Without increased intervention global blindness is set to double by 2020, warn Sightsavers and Standard Chartered.

Sightsavers, whose mission is to eradicate avoidable blindness in developing countries, is supported by Seeing is Believing, a global initiative funded by Standard Chartered, to provide comprehensive and sustainable eye care services in urban slums. With blindness and poverty being inextricably linked, and with 75% of global blindness (currently standing at 45m people) being preventable or curable, much more can be done to positively change the futures of people living in some of the poorest and underserved parts of the world.

Joanna Conlon, Head of Seeing is Believing, comments: “Urban populations are growing at a rate of over a million people a week. The speed of such growth in areas where existing eye care is often insufficient has clear implications for the incidence of avoidable blindness in cities. For the urban poor, access to eye care services can be prohibitively expensive. Instead of seeking treatment, people with failing eye sight can drift from feeling like an economic burden on their families, to becoming one, as their eye sight degenerates
completely. This is why we are working with NGOs like Sightsavers to support the development of vital, affordable services in communities.”

Seeing is Believing aims to raise $20m by the end of 2012 to invest in comprehensive and sustainable eye care services for 20 million people, in impoverished urban areas across the Bank’s markets. The programme is currently supporting Sightsavers’ projects in Mumbai and Kolkata in India, Lusaka in Zambia, Colombo in Sri Lanka and Dhaka in Bangladesh. It brings primary eye health services, and therefore hope, to millions by improving facilities, training personnel in eye health and ophthalmic skills and organising community screening programmes in slums. Much of the focus is on the most vulnerable such as women and children.

Commenting on the issue of urban eye health, Sightsavers’ Chief Executive Caroline Harper said: “With eye care procedures, such as a cataract operation, costing Sightsavers as little as £17, or a pair of spectacles just £1.50, these are some of the most cost-effective medical interventions in the world. They can have a long-lasting and dramatic impact, changing fortunes by enabling children to go to school or adults to seek employment. The support of Seeing is Believing therefore goes a long way in helping us to achieve our mission in some of the poorest parts of the world.”

Ends

For further press information, case studies or high resolution images, including pictures of Sightsavers work in urban slums or the Seeing is Believing programme, please contact Rachel Heald on 01444 446754, rheald@sightsavers.org. For media enquiries out of hours, please call 07775 928253.

Notes to Editors:

* WHO website: http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2010/WHDtoolkit2010_en_section2.pdf

About Sightsavers:

1.Sightsavers is a registered UK charity (Registered charity numbers 207544 and SC038110) that works in more than 30 developing countries to prevent blindness, restore sight and advocate for social inclusion and equal rights for people who are blind and visually impaired. www.sightsavers.org
2.There are 45 million blind people in the world; 75% of all blindness can be prevented or cured.
3.Every sixty seconds another child loses their sight; only 2% of children who are disabled in the developing world attend school
4.2010 marks the 60th anniversary of Sightsavers, originally called the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, which was founded in 1950 by the late Sir John Wilson.
5.In the six decades since its foundation, Sightsavers has:
-Treated over 206.8 million people for blinding and potentially blinding conditions
-Carried out over 7.1 million operations to restore sight
-Trained almost 0.5 million primary eye care workers
-Carried out rehabilitation training to 91,000 people

About Seeing is Believing (SiB)

Seeing is Believing (SiB) is a major global public-private initiative to help tackle avoidable blindness and is a collaboration between Standard Chartered and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) (registered charity, No. 1100559) along with its membership body of leading eye-care NGOs.

Started by Standard Chartered staff in 2003 as a way of celebrating the Bank’s 150th anniversary, Seeing is Believing has raised over US$17 million and impacted over 8 million people to date, including over 2.5 million who have benefited from sight restorations. The programme’s latest commitment will invest a further US$20 million by the end of 2014 to provide comprehensive and sustainable eye care services to 20 million people in impoverished urban areas.
For more information, visit www.seeingisbelieving.org.uk