What we do

What we do

Eye care

Eye care To carry out the much needed consultations and treatments to combat blindness, CBM provides hospitals and department buildings as well as equipment to screen and treat patients. For example, at the Basic Eye Care Services project in Uzbekistan Hospital they now have the expertise and the...

Medical programmes

Medical programmes CBM provides medication surgery and specialised equipment to manage blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, club foot, polio, malaria and malnutrition as well as a host of other illness. Mental and physical impairments are more difficult for people to cope with in the developing w...

Training and research

Training and Research CBM believe developing countries should have their own skilled specialists and infrastructure in place to enable them to help themselves in the long-term. With this in mind the main role of the CBM seconded co-workers is to train national specialists. One of the training proj...

Education

Education Children with disabilities are least likely to have access to education in the developing world. This has an adverse effect on the child's immediate future as well as impacting on their adult life. Moya Brennan visits a school for the deaf in the Congo CBM addresses this problem throu...

Community based rehabilitation

Community based rehabilitation The World Health Organisation estimates that between 7 and 10 % of human beings are disabled in one way or another. About 80% of people with disabilities live in developing countries, and of these, less than 5% have access to health services. This picture, as well ...

Malaria

Malaria Malnutrition and malaria throughout Africa means that infections of the bones and joints are common in children. They have weak immune mechanisms and many live in unhygienic surroundings, so bacteria can easily enter their little bodies. Infected bone can be removed during surgery, but ofte...

Polio

Polio Years of civil unrest in Uganda (and other countries) has meant that immunisation against Polio was impossible. Many children are now suffering the after effects of this infrastructural collapse. Polio causes paralysis of muscles most frequently affecting the lower limbs. There are thousands ...

Cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy results from a brain injury at the time of birth, or during infancy. Premature birth, lack of obstetric care, and rampant malaria combine to produce a much higher incidence of cerebral palsy in developing countries. Children with cerebral palsy develop a stiffness i...

Congenital deformities

Congenital Deformities Clubfoot is one of the most common congenital deformities worldwide and affects at least one out of every 1,000 babies born. Lack of immediate treatment leads to a painful condition that can only be corrected by surgery, at an average cost of €205 per child. But even ear...

Deafness

Deafness Our aim is to help each deaf person to be as independent as possible and enable them to take an active part in their community. CBM gives support in a variety of ways: through surgery, medication, rehabilitation and education. There are 250 million people suffering from a hearing im...

Intellectual disabilities

Intellectual disabilities In the developing world mental illness is seen as a curse from God. The difficulties of intellectual disability are compounded by neglect and fear. There are an estimated 100 million people living with intellectual disabilities in the world. A combination of factors inclu...

Conflict disabilities

Conflict Disabilities Conflict and war have created their own grim disabilities. In Rwanda many thousands of people who survived the genocide had limbs amputated by machete attacks. On the border region with the Congo conflict continues and women are brutally raped as a method of terrorism. Often t...

Working with disability

Working with disability For people in the developing world a disability can be a death sentence. For many children it is: 80% of children with a disability die before they are twenty. CBM is committed to helping people with disabilities across the developing world. And this commitment is a monument...

Vitamin A deficiency

Vitamin A deficiency Vitamin A Deficiency can cause permanent blindness, and even death. About 250 million children are showing signs of vitamin A deficiency such as difficulty seeing in poor light and dry eyes. This year an estimated 350,000 children will go blind and a further two million will di...

Trachoma

Trachoma Trachoma is a disease that has already blinded six million people and a staggering 146 million face blindness if they do not have access to preventative medication. Re-infection can occur many times, causing the eye lid to turn under, scarring the cornea with every painful blink, until the...

River blindness

River Blindness River blindness is caused by a parasitic worm and is spread by the blackfly which breeds in fast-flowing rivers. Eighteen million people worldwide are currently infected with river blindness and another 40 million are at risk of developing the disease. River blindness is prev...

Cataracts

Cataracts Cataract is the single largest cause of blindness. At least half of the blind people in the world are blind from cataract, which could be cured. It's not just the elderly who are affected as children can be born with congenital cataracts. Cataract can be removed through an ine...

Working with blindness

Working with blindness Over 45 million people around the world suffer from blindness. That's the bad news. The good news is that 80% of blindness could be prevented or cured, as long as the funds are available. ...