Inclusive eye health
Our goal is to ensure all our eye health work is sustainable, accessible and planned with gender and disability considerations in mind.
At Sightsavers, we want all our health programmes to include people with disabilities, women and other marginalised groups, such as people with HIV/AIDS and transgender people.
This is particularly important in eye health: we aim to empower marginalised groups so they can get treatment for eye conditions and are able to access other services, such as eye screening.
We also work to improve local health care by helping governments and local stakeholders to provide inclusive and sustainable health services that are available for all.
What we’re doing
We’re committed to making sure people with disabilities are included in our eye health programmes.
Pilot project in Bhopal, India
In 2016 and 2017 we tested different approaches to inclusive eye health in a programme in Bhopal, targeting some of the poorest and most vulnerable people. Find out more about the pilot project.
Replicating the approach in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Mozambique
After refining our approach, we are applying it to other programmes. We work with governments, NGO eye health providers and national disabled people’s organisations to make sure people with disabilities are involved at all stages of a programme. Read a blog about our project in Mozambique.
Continuing to expand our inclusive eye health projects
Our aim is to replicate this across other countries where we run eye health projects, initially in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In each case we will work closely with representatives of local disabled people’s organisations.
Reaching more
communities
Following our Bhopal pilot, we're breaking down barriers to eye health for people in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The Right to HealthRead our blogs for more about our inclusion work
Inclusive eye health blogsMore about health
Young artists get creative to promote disability inclusion
Art students in Bhopal painted striking murals along the wall of a hospital to mark International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Counting the difference: what did we learn in Bhopal?
Emma Jolley travelled to Bhopal to revisit the disability disaggregation pilot happening there and take stock of what we have learned in the past year.
Eye screening for survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy
Sightsavers organised screening camps for those affected by the Bhopal disaster in 1984, when a gas leak killed 3,800 people.
Read our reports and strategies
Inclusive eye health resources