At Orbis International, we believe that no one should live a life of blindness simply because of where they were born.
Unfortunately, the reality is that 1.1 billion people are currently living with vision loss, 338 million of which are blind or have moderate to severe visual impairment. Nine out of ten people with vision loss live in low- and middle-income countries, where eye care is often unavailable or difficult to access. The overwhelming majority of these cases are preventable or treatable.
Despite progress made in the provision of eye care over the past 30 years, significant challenges remain in preventing avoidable vision loss. Challenges include inequity in access to and quality of prevention and treatment services, shortages of trained eye care professionals, and lack of integration with other health services, among others.
New research shows great progress toward offsetting global blindness projections; however, without faster improvement, blindness will still affect 60 million people by 2050.
