Through the Eyes of Women
Cataract the cause of half of global blindness
Commemorating World Sight Day 2011 on 13th October 2011, CBM draws attention to the high proportion of blind people (90%) who live in developing countries.
World Sight Day (WSD) is an international day of awareness, held annually on the second Thursday of October to focus attention on the global issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment.
Half of all blindness is caused by cataract, which means that nearly 20 million people could regain sight through a simple operation. CBM and its project partners did this procedure 644,000 times in the world's poorest places in 2010. All in all, CBM-supported projects have done over 10 million cataract operations worldwide since 1966.
Did you know:
- Nearly two-thirds of blind people worldwide are female
- 80% of blindness is avoidable - either treatable, curable or preventable
- In many places, men have twice the access to eye care as women
- Equal access to eye care could substantially reduce blindness in poor countries*
- Simple and effective strategies can and do successfully address this inequity within VISION 2020: The Right to Sight, which CBM supports.
CBM Ireland is working in some of the poorest communities in the world to prevent unnecessary blindness in women. We're doing this by treating and preventing diseases like Trachoma and River Blindness; and by performing sight-giving cataract operations in places like Samburu.
"I've had Trachoma for four months now.
I pull out my eyelashes with tweezers."
Martha, Samburu
A woman's experience of Trachoma - Martha's Story
In Samburu, Northern Kenya, you often come across people like Martha, wearing a pair of tweezers on a cord around their necks. This is no fashion accessory, but a desperate method of ridding themselves from the agony of Trachoma.
Martha has Trachoma Trichiasis, an advanced stage of Trachoma where her eyelids have turned inwards and her eye-lashes are constantly scratching the surface of her eyes, causing her terrible pain.
"I've had Trachoma for four months now. I pull out my eyelashes with these tweezers," Martha holds up the metal pincers hanging around her neck. "It hurts when I pull my lashes out, but it's better than the scratching. I can't see properly. The problem is the eyelashes. When I remove them I can see properly."
But of course, Martha's eyelashes grow back, and the pain begins all over again. Without help from CBM, she will go blind. Her only hope of a cure at this stage, is lid rotation surgery. A simple procedure that costs just €15.
CBM supporters pay for thousands of these operations, saving people just like Martha from agonising blindness.
And you can too - click here to donate now.
Did you know:
A powerful antiobiotic called Zithromax costing just 10 cent to distribute can stop Trachoma in it's tracks - killing the infection before it reaches the agonising stage that Martha's has. And €25 can protect an entire village- that's 250 people - please help with a donation today!
* "... blindness and severe visual impairment from cataract could be reduced by around 11% in low- and middle-income countries if women were to receive cataract surgery at the same rate as men (British Journal of Ophthalmology, Dec 2008; doi:10.1136/bjo. 2008.140301)."
