The future is inclusive: celebrating International Women’s Day

This International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting the injustice that women are more likely to experience avoidable blindness, while also celebrating some of the inspiring women working to deliver eye health services and save sight in the world’s poorest places.

Two thirds of all of the blind people in the world are women. Too often, women’s health and wellbeing is still valued less than that of men, which means they are less likely to access sight-saving medical care. Caring responsibilities and social attitudes mean women may be less able to travel long distances to hospital for eye examinations or treatment.

Delivering eye health services that are accessible to all means bringing health services closer to people’s homes, even if they live in rural or hard-to-reach communities, and ensuring that they are affordable to all. It means training and equipping more health outreach workers like Sia and Debisa and promoting awareness of the importance of eye health services for everyone, including women and girls. Together, we can help more women and girls access sight-saving health services and See the Way to a brighter future.

Introducing Debisa, health outreach worker

“It makes me happy to see someone protected against blindness.”

Debisa is one of two health outreach workers protecting families from trachoma in the Amhara region in northern Ethiopia, East Africa. This area has one of the highest trachoma prevalence rates in the world – over half of the population have this blinding eye condition.

Debisa goes from village to village to find people living with trachoma and provide them eye drops to save their sight.

Introducing Sia, medical assistant

“You make their lives better, you bring joy into their hearts. Being based in this clinic, what I can say is, may God bless you. You cannot know what you are doing, but the Lord shall reward you. Thank you.” says Sia.

Sia is a Medical Assistant at our partner hospital Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Tanzania, East Africa. She works with patients that have glaucoma and carries out eye tests to check people’s vision and recommend them for treatment. This is sight-saving work is only made possible thanks to supporters like you.

Between 12 February and 12 May 2020, all public donations to the See the Way appeal will be doubled by the UK government, up to £2 million. So every pound given will have double the impact! It could fund twice as many sight-saving surgeries, pairs of glasses or eye-health outreach activities in the world’s poorest places. Match funding from the UK government will improve access to sight-saving eye-health services in Malawi.

Find out more at www.SeeTheWay.org (open link in new tab)

Images: Top – Sarah, an Ophthalmic Clinical Officer from our partner hospital in Rwanda. Middle – Debisa, CBM health outreach worker in Ethiopia. Bottom – Sia, medical assistant at our partner hospital in Tanzania.