How we help
Sightsavers believes that no one should be blind from avoidable causes, and that people’s whose sight can’t be saved should live with dignity and independence.
Did you know?
- There are 39 million blind people in the world
- 80% of blindness is avoidable
- Nearly 90% of visually impaired people live in the world’s poorest countries
- Less than 10% of disabled children (including those who are blind) get the chance to go to primary school in Africa
So the problems we are trying to tackle are pretty enormous.
All of our work can be divided into the areas of health, social inclusion, education and community development. Click below to find out what we do in each of these areas.
Health
We tackle the main causes of avoidable blindness including cataract, and a group of diseases that have been coined ‘neglected tropical diseases’ such as river blindness and trachoma.
Social inclusion
Disabled people are usually the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. Sightsavers’ believes that people with disabilities such as blindness should be treated equally, with the same rights as everyone else.
Education
It's estimated that a staggering 67 million children around the world missing out on an education, and approximately a third of these are children with some kind of disability. Sightsavers works to make sure children who are blind or have low vision get the chance to go to school
Community development
Communities are not always aware of their own health needs, and visually impaired people are often not included in discussions and decisions that affect the development of their communities.
