Children like Shanice are blind
But they don't have to be.
Children like Shanice are blind.
But they don't have to be.
Children like Shanice are blind.
But they don't have to be.
Without treatment, children like Shanice are at risk of a lifetime of blindness.
“Shanice urgently needs an operation.” Shanice (pictured above) is just five years old and was born with cataracts in both of her eyes. Living in one of the world's poorest places, her mother Aisha borrowed money to bring her to Dr Aliraki at Mengo Eye Clinic, Uganda.
Aisha hesitates and asks how much the operation to replace Shanice's lenses will cost. When told, she sighs, “I will need to work at least a year to save that, maybe two. What will happen to Shanice?"
For a child like Shanice, if help isn't available quickly, she could go blind - permanently - just because her family are poor.
There are many children like Shanice, living in poverty. With a kind gift to CBM today, you could transform their entire life.
Will you help save the sight of a child like Shanice?
Will you gift a child their sight today?
You can free twice as many children like Shanice from blindness
Imagine your child has a condition that is making them blind. It can be treated. But you cannot afford it.
Children like Shanice are living with sight-loss right now in the world's poorest places, simply because the cost of treatment is out of reach.
Aisha could tell there was a problem when Shanice was still a baby, but in her remote home in Uganda, East Africa, there were no eye health services nearby.
At nursery, teachers noticed Shanice struggled to see beyond toys right in front of her. They suggested she should have her eyes checked.
However, Aisha couldn't afford the check-up, barely managing nursery fees. Aisha could only hope for her little girl's eyesight to improve.
On Shanice's first day at school, she couldn't read the blackboard. The children called her 'Muzibe,' an unkind term for 'blind.' Despite dreaming of becoming a doctor ('Musawo'), teachers deemed it pointless to pay school fees for a sight-impaired child.
Aisha knew Shanice's educational opportunities were slipping away. Desperate, she did what any mother would do: she pleaded for time off, borrowed money, and travelled to Mengo Hospital in Kampala.
And then she found out her daughter's sight could be saved, but she could not afford it.
For a child like Shanice, your donations mean there is hope - to see, to go to school, and to follow their dreams.
Our impact last year
1.4m
people treated for
blinding diseases
111k
people given sight-restoring cataract surgery
153k
glasses and low vision
devices distributed
3/4 of people who are blind don’t need to be.
Millions of people worldwide are needlessly blind because they can’t get simple surgery or treatment that could save their sight.
Too often, if you live in a poor community, going blind means losing your chance to go to school, earn a living or live independently.
CBM works across the world’s poorest countries to prevent avoidable blindness and restore sight.
And 82p of every £1 you give goes towards this vital work.
Thank you.
Christian Blind Mission UK, Munro House, 20 Mercers Row, Cambridge CB5 8HY
Christian Blind Mission UK is registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales as charity number 1058162, and with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator as charity number SC041101.
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