Would you put a price on your sight?

Imagine not witnessing your child’s first smile. Imagine not being able to experience your grandchild’s first steps.
Imagine the isolation of not being able to see what is going on around you. Imagine not being able to read the daily newspaper or your favourite book. Did you know that about 90% of the world’s visually impaired live in developing countries?

Eric Clarke, CBM Country Manager for Northern Ireland and member of Moira Baptist Church said: “In Africa, as little as £24 can restore someone’s sight, or prevent them from going blind, yet for many in the developing world who struggle for food and basic needs, this price is still too far from their reach.”

Cataracts produce a devastating economic impact on people who are already living in extreme poverty. Those who live on the edge of survival often have to additionally contend with the loss of ability to support themselves and their families, loss of educational opportunities and lack of acceptance into their communities. Not to mention their chances of physical survival spiral drastically. In the developing world, more than half of children who go blind will die within 2 years due to limited access to health services and a lack of food and nutrition and life expectancy for an adult decreases by around 10 years.

In addition, when an adult goes blind in a developing country, children are often removed from school to help lead the blind adult around, care for them and help provide for the family.

CBM, the overseas disability charity helps by providing sight saving treatment for cataracts. It performed more that 844,000 sight saving operations in 2011. Almost 80% of blindness in the developing world is preventable, avoidable and treatable.

In 2010, CBM, the overseas disability charity performed its 10 millionth cataract surgery, an accomplishment unprecedented by any other organisation in the world.

CBM, the overseas disability charity is a world leader in the prevention of blindness. It aims to improve the quality of life of the world’s poorest people with disability or at risk of disability. It strives to achieve this through prevention and treatment of diseases which can lead to impairment, improving access to education and rehabilitation services, and advocating for the rights of people with disability to full inclusion in all aspects of life.

So many of us take for granted the value of sight. With your help, we can continue to transform the lives of so many people and help them lead a life that may not otherwise have been possible.Can you help give the gift of sight?