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Noria Moonga was one of the first to benefit from a new project to strengthen eye health services for the two million people living along the railway line stretching from Livingstone in the Southern Province of Zambia to the capital Lusaka.

Health care, including eye health, is out of reach for the majority of the people living in these poor urban districts. Sadly, many people go blind from preventable conditions like cataract. Lack of clean water and crowded living conditions means eye problems such as trachoma are common. 78-year-old Noria is sole carer for her 15 grandchildren. But when her eyesight started to fail she was no longer able to grow enough food to provide for her family, which was her only source of income.

Her brother-in-law took her to Lusaka Eye Hospital, which thanks to funding from
Standard Chartered through its Seeing is Believing programme, is now able to provide free eye care for people like Noria who cannot afford treatment. She was diagnosed with cataract, a clouding of the eye’s lens. “I will be very happy to be able to see again,” she told us.

The operation was a success! Noria can’t stop smiling and claps her hands in joy.
Yet many people are not as fortunate as Noria. Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the developing world, so we still have a long way to go to reach the millions of people living with avoidable blindness.