Internationals Women's Day: See her potential
March 2021
Each year on 8 March people around the world celebrate International Women’s Day - an opportunity to reflect on progress towards gender equality and what still needs to be done to create a fairer and more equitable world. At Orbis we know that blindness is a gender issue and are committed to alleviating unequal access to eye care.
Globally, 1.1 billion people live with vision loss, including blindness. Women & girls make up 55% of these people – that’s 112 million more women than men.
Through our long-term country programmes, Flying Eye Hospital projects and online Cybersight training and mentoring, we are proving the quality of eye care available to women & girls around the world.
112 million more women than men are living with vision loss, including blindness.
WHY IS BLINDNESS A GENDER ISSUE?
In many parts of the world gender inequality means women face additional barriers to accessing eye care that men don't:
- Costs: Less access to family financial resources can result in women’s inability to pay for their health care and related transportation costs.
- Inability to travel: Women often have fewer options for travel than men. Older women may require assistance, which poor families cannot provide.
- Lack of access to information and resources: Literacy for women & girls is often lower than for men & boys, especially among the elderly. As a result, women can be less likely to know about the possibility of treatment for eye disease or where to go to receive it.
Find out more about our gender focused programme by visiting our women and girls page.
Learn about Orbis Irelands work in Ethiopia with Women and Girls
To celebrate International Women's Week from March 8th-12th all donations up to €50 on the Global Giving Platform will be matched by 50%.
Click Here to donate via Global Giving.