India is home to around 25% of the world's blind population and has the largest number of blind children in any one country. With little access to quality eye doctors, hospital or clinics, where would you turn for help?
As your sight gets worse, your chances of getting an education or earning a steady income evaporate and you risk becoming blind for life.
This Diwali, we want to shine a light on this underreported crisis and bring the gift of sight to more children and adults in India, offering hope for a brighter future.
Children, in particular, are at serious risk of losing their sight permanently if their eye condition is not treated in time.
But, in certain districts of India, few eye care professionals have the right training to treat children and many medical centres do not have child-friendly eye care facilities.
Getting the right treatment, therefore, often involves travelling large distances to get to a hospital. This can be expensive and means parents have to take time off work, losing out on precious income. So treatment can come too late to restore a child’s sight.
Your donation today can help strengthen paediatric eye care services in India so that children like Sajiya can receive the help they need, giving them a better chance to stay in school, break the cycle of poverty and achieve their full potential.
It is estimated that almost half of the children who are blind today could have their sight restored if the underlying causes of their vision loss were adequately addressed and treated properly. By donating to our ‘See The Light’ Diwali Appeal you can help prevent children in India from going blind unnecessarily. Your support will help to:
Orbis has been delivering sight-saving programmes for children and adults in India for over 22 years.
This Diwali, we hope you will join us so that more people can ‘See The Light’.
