IS EYE CARE THAT IMPORTANT IN AFRICA?
Africa is the continent with the highest prevalence of blindness with an estimated 4.8 million blind and 16.6 million people living with severe to moderate visual impairment. 75% suffer from conditions that treatable, curable or preventable.
According to Statistics South Africa, 435 109 people in South Africa have low vision but the majority of the ophthalmologists work in the urban areas and the private sector whereas the citizens most at risk live in rural areas. In Ethiopia, trachoma, an entirely preventable eye disease, is partly responsible for causing blindness in nearly a million people. Approximately 9 000 children in Ghana are blind – more than half these cases were avoidable.
In 2016 Orbis globally trained 40 000 eye-care professionals to treat vision impairment.
Our interventions improved more than 3.5 million lives.
OUR IMPACT
When sight is restored to people who are visually impaired, or when blindness is prevented, it doesn’t just improve the lives of individuals. It strengthens their communities. Men and women can return to work. Children go back to school. People can contribute to their community helping to build a better future for their families.
By working to build the resources and expertise of eye care professionals in Africa, we’re giving countless communities access to quality eye care and transforming lives in the process.
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WE CHANGE LIVES. YOU CAN HELP
It all starts with a vision. For us, that is an Africa where no one ever loses their sight through preventable or treatable disease.
Please help us realise that vision. Make Orbis Africa your charity and help us in one of the following ways.
FUNDRAISE
Attend one of our fundraising events or stage an event nominating Orbis Africa as the beneficiary.
WE’D LOVE YOUR HELP
Donate your services, skills or time.
HOW YOUR DONATION IS USED
In 2015, 92 percent of every donation was used by Orbis Africa to fund its eye care programme costs.
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Dutch Rotary Club ‘Sees’ Vision Loss
Everybody always focuses on what you are NOT able to do, which obscures all the things that you are able to do.
Eye Bank of Ethiopia Celebrates 15 Years of Treating Corneal Blindness
Partners in eye care, Orbis International, Himalayan Cataract Project and SightLife honor milestone for the highest volume eye bank in sub-Saharan Africa.
Orbis Africa transforms lives through access to quality eye health.
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