In the small village of Adawukwa Fianko, nestled in the Awutu Senya District of Ghana’s Central Region, lives an 84-year-old man named Ayetu. For the past five years, he has been grappling with visual impairment, due to an eye disease that has drastically altered his life. Once a dedicated farmer, he now relies on his 75-year-old wife, Adwoa, to tend to their farm and provide for them.
Ayetu's journey with glaucoma began a decade ago when he first noticed problems with his vision. A visit to the hospital confirmed his fears: he was diagnosed with glaucoma, a condition that damages the optic nerve and can lead to blindness if untreated. The cost of the necessary eye drops was a heavy burden on his finances, often preventing him from attending his monthly check-ups. In desperation, he turned to herbal remedies, but his vision continued to deteriorate.
"From the year 2020 until 2022, I stopped visiting the hospital because of severe financial hardship that I faced,” Ayetu recalls. “My vision kept deteriorating until I became totally blind in my left eye, leaving me with a little vision in my right eye, which I depend on now."
In 2022, a ray of hope appeared. Thanks to support from our generous donors, we introduced a program to provide free glaucoma medication for patients like Ayetu.
Ayetu shares his journey, reflecting on the moments that shaped his experience: "I was overwhelmed with gratitude when I started receiving these medications every month. The pain and tearing in my eyes have ceased, and the pressure in my eyes has stabilized. I probably would have lost the remaining vision in my right eye if not for the free glaucoma medication given to me every month."
What is glaucoma?
Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes damage to the optic nerve, which is essential for vision. This damage is often due to increased pressure inside the eye, known as intraocular pressure. It is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, but with early detection and proper treatment, its progression can be slowed or even halted. Regular eye exams are crucial for early detection and management of glaucoma. If detected early, treatments such as medications, laser therapy or surgery can help slow or prevent further vision loss. Unfortunately, many people like Ayetu struggle to afford the necessary treatment.
As we observe World Glaucoma Week (March 9-15, 2025), we invite you to join us in making a difference. You can help more people like Ayetu by giving the Gift of Sight today. Please consider making a donation in honour of World Glaucoma Week.
Thank you to all our donors for your continued support. Your generosity changes lives and brings hope to those in need — For All The World To See!
With files from Dora Ewusi, Project Coordinator – Awutu Senya, Ghana
Eight-year-old Richmond, who lives in Ajumako Ashiem, Ghana, enjoys playing outside, just like any other boy his age. But until recently, things were much harder for the primary school student.
Before getting cataract surgery, Richmond had a hard time seeing clearly and missed a lot of school because of fatigue caused by eye strain. His parents said he was listless and spent a lot of time inside the house. Fortunately for young Richmond, help was on the way.
His school was one of dozens in the area included in a school eye health program that we are implementing in partnership with Ghana Health Service and Ghana Education Service. A visiting optometrist quickly diagnosed Richmond with a cataract, and he was referred for surgery at St. Barnabas Family Clinic in Greater Accra, where he was treated free of charge, thanks to the generosity of donors like you.
Dora Ruth Assan is the School Health Education Programs Coordinator for Richmond’s district. She says she hears a lot of stories about children who are transformed by eye care. “A lot of them, because they were having challenges with their sight, they were not happy to be at school. When there’s outdoor games, they don’t participate,” says Assan. “But now, because they were screened, and they realized they are having challenges, they were educated on what to do.” She adds that school enrolment has improved overall since they introduced school eye health screenings.
As for young Richmond, he is just happy to be attending school regularly and playing with his friends once again. His parents say they are grateful for the help he received.
Please donate today to help provide eye health care services for more children like Richmond. Thank you for your support!
Anastasia, a 41-year-old mother of two teenage daughters, lives in Jei Krodua, in the Awutu Senya District of Ghana, where she earns a living brewing and selling asaana, a traditional local beverage. For nearly six years, she struggled with deteriorating vision, frequently endured pain and suffered from extreme sensitivity to light. These challenges made selling her drinks increasingly difficult and often, unable to see properly, accidentally gave customers too much change, realizing later that most did not return the extra money. “It wasn’t until I would go back home and calculate my sales that I would notice I had been cheated by some of my customers,” she recalled. One time, her impaired vision caused her to spill an entire batch of asaana while trying to place it on a table.
When Anastasia first began experiencing vision problems, she went to a nearby hospital, where she was diagnosed with pterygium — a growth on the eye’s conjunctiva. But, the pterygium was still immature, and she was advised to wait. By the time it had matured enough to be removed, her husband had grown older, fallen ill and was no longer able to work, leaving them without the means to pay for the surgery. “As a sole breadwinner and a mother of two teenagers who is also taking care of my husband, my meagre income could hardly take care of our daily needs, so undergoing a surgery was an impossible dream,” Anastasia shared.
Hope returned when Anastasia heard about an eye screening camp organized by Operation Eyesight. She attended, expecting little more than medication, but instead, she was diagnosed with a mature pterygium that could be removed through surgery at Operation Eyesight’s partner hospital Watborg Eye Services — free of charge, thanks to the generosity of donors. Anastasia underwent successful surgery, and she was also diagnosed with a refractive error and received prescription glasses at no cost.
With her vision fully restored and her business back on track, Anastasia could finally see a brighter future for her family.
“Though I feel that a mere thank you is not enough to express my appreciation, there is no other way to express to my joy except with a thank you. I am immensely grateful to Operation Eyesight for coming through for me.” – Anastasia
Your support can help restore vision and hope for someone like Anastasia. By giving the Gift of Sight, you not only honour your loved ones, but also extend the spirit of compassion and generosity to someone across the world.
Written with files from Dora Ewusi.
Between textbooks, whiteboards and videos in class, most of the information that’s presented to kids at school is visual. So what does that mean for a child who can’t see clearly?
In countries where eye health care is difficult to access, a simple eye condition like myopia (nearsightedness) can cause a student to fall behind and even drop out of school, which in turn could affect the child’s income for the rest of his or her life.
Ensuring that Quality Education is available to all children is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. We’re working towards this goal by ensuring that more children get the eye health care they need to thrive at school and take charge of their education.
According to a survey by the World Bank, children with visual impairments in sub-Saharan Africa are five percentage points less likely to ever be enrolled in school or to complete primary school. They are six percentage points less likely to be literate.1
The links between academic performance and visual impairment can be harder to draw given the complexity of the issue, but one survey from francophone countries in Africa found that primary school students – who self-reported difficulties with their vision – performed worse on standardized tests in math and reading in all but one of the 10 participating countries.2 Similarly, a Stanford study of 20,000 fourth and fifth graders in rural China found that eyeglasses boosted the standardized test scores by 18 per cent over six months.3
Even studies from higher income countries, where children have better access to eye health care, show that students with poor vision tend to read more slowly than their peers and are more likely to report that they don’t like reading.4 Visual fatigue is a likely culprit for both, and the resulting headaches and tiredness that these kids experience are also thought to play a role in behavioral issues at school.
Roughly 22.16 million children ages 14 and under have Moderate to Severe Vision Impairment (MSVI) and 44.6 million have mild vision impairment, according to a panel of global health professionals called the Vision Loss Expert Group.5
Only 20-50 per cent of the children who need prescription eyeglasses worldwide actually own a pair.6 Often, this is due to a lack of access to eye health care. In rural, remote or underserved communities, especially in low- and middle-income countries, many kids don’t get regular eye exams or have access to prescription eyeglasses and other treatment. This could be due to financial constraints, lack of education about the importance of eye health, or simply because there aren’t any optometry clinics nearby.
Across lower-income communities, schools may also lack electricity or lighting, making it even more difficult for a student with vision impairment to read information written on a blackboard. Lack of adequate lighting at home can also cause difficulties in completing homework. For a secondary student who is already falling behind in class, not being able to finish homework in a timely manner could end their school career, and cause them to drop out early.
Isaac Baffoe, who manages our school eye health programs in Ghana, says one student’s story really stuck with him. The girl reported that her eyesight started to fade when she was about 12 years old, and by age 15 she had severe vision impairment. For years, she relied on a classmate to read the blackboard out loud to her during class. Isaac often wonders what would have happened to her if her friend hadn’t been so helpful, or even more importantly, if our school eye health program hadn’t reached her school and she hadn’t gotten prescription eyeglasses.
Our field staff hear a lot about the difficulties that students face before they get eyeglasses. One student in Ethiopia reported that she and her friend were frequently scolded when the friend read the blackboard notes aloud to her. Others reported that their grades dropped sharply, or that they lost interest in their studies. Many children say that they asked their parents to take them to the eye doctor, but due to tight finances or difficulty in reaching a clinic, they weren’t able to get the eye care they needed.
The good news is that, with your ongoing support, we are changing all of this – one school and one child at a time.
Part of our goal at Operation Eyesight is to reach every single member of a community with eye health care, ensuring that nobody gets left behind. Increasingly, we’re screening school-aged children for eye issues right in the classroom.
In 2023 alone, our school eye health programs helped us screen more than 240,000 students in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal and Zambia.
In Kenya, we’ve partnered with the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Child Blindness Program and Peek Vision to deliver an innovative program where teachers are trained to do the initial eye health screenings using a simple smartphone app. This allows us to screen more students overall, while still providing referrals to those children identified with eye problems to get a complete eye exam with a healthcare professional.
In Ghana, we train community health nurses to help deliver our school eye health programs, also in partnership with USAID and with funding from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Latter-day Saints Charities. In addition to conducting school eye health screenings, the nurses provide the students with eye health education sessions, where they learn how to prevent eye injuries and infections and learn about various conditions, like refractive errors (the need for eyeglasses). By making sure children have basic eye health information and know where to go for subsidized eye care, whole families are made aware of the services that are available to them.
Isaac, who has been on hand during several of these school screening events, says the children are always very eager to get involved. “The children show lots of interest. They want to participate,” he explains. “During all the screenings we’ve attended to audit, the children are very cooperative, they really want to know what is going on.”
He adds that it’s not just the students who are happy with getting a pair of eyeglasses.
“It’s not only a relief to the children, but also to the teachers,” he says, “because it also made their work difficult to spend extra time with these children who were struggling with their studies prior to receiving eyeglasses.”
In November 2020, the borehole in the Zambian village of Kangwa broke down. The COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, and the need for clean water was more urgent than ever. For Natasha, a teenager who was in high school at the time, the breakdown had devastating consequences. As the family member tasked with fetching water, Natasha now had to walk several kilometres each day to complete the chore, meaning she could no longer attend school. She wasn’t alone – other teenage girls in her community were in the same situation.
When our team in Zambia found out about the broken borehole, they sprang into action and quickly got it fixed. They were well equipped to do so, because we have been working with communities to repair and drill boreholes for many years to curb the spread of trachoma.
Trachoma is a bacterial eye infection that’s common in areas with water shortages and crowded living conditions. The bacteria spreads easily through contact with eye discharge from infected people on hands and clothing, and also through direct transmission by flies. If left untreated, it can cause severe pain, vision loss and even blindness. In fact, it is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide.
When we work with communities in areas of Zambia, Ethiopia and Kenya where trachoma is endemic, we ensure that water and sanitation issues are part of our intervention. In communities like Kangwa, this means training local volunteer teams to help maintain and repair broken boreholes, and training community WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) teams to educate their neighbours about preventing trachoma transmission in the home.
In order to ensure that girls have equal access to quality education, clean water and sanitation facilities must be part of the solution. (Watch this video to learn more about the ripple effects of clean water.)
Myopia (nearsightedness) rates are on the rise all over the world. In 2020, the global prevalence was 30 per cent. It’s estimated to rise to 50 per cent by 2050.7
In China, where the rise in myopia in children is being described as an epidemic, the government has rolled out a nation-wide strategy to curb the growth, which includes school-based eye screenings, public health education campaigns, a reduction in homework and an increase in time spent outdoors.8
As suggested by China’s strategies, many of the factors contributing to the rise of myopia are likely due to modern lifestyles: more time spent indoors, doing near-work like homework, and more time spent parked in front of digital devices.
But there may be more at play in the phenomenon, including environmental risks like increasing urbanization and changing diets. As low- to middle-income countries become more urbanized and educational pressures mount, children everywhere are at increased risk of developing the refractive error. In parts of Africa and Asia where families already face difficulties accessing eye health care, the gap between eye health services and those in need of treatment will continue to grow.
As part of our 2024-2028 Global Strategy, we are committed to providing eye health care and clean water to more children so that they can take full advantage of any educational opportunities they are presented with. This means integrating WASH projects with school eye health projects and rolling out more school eye health programs across our countries of work.
We have already seen much success with our school eye health programs in countries like Kenya and Ghana, where we’re working with the local ministries of health and education. Now, it’s time to scale our efforts to more schools, more districts and more countries. With your ongoing support, we can expand our reach and improve the quality of life for more kids around the world.
Donate today and help us restore sight and prevent blindness for more children. The Gift of Sight is the gift of education and the gift of opportunity. Thank you for your support!
Vision loss affects nearly every facet of a child’s life. Some studies suggest that up to 80 per cent of learning is visual. That’s why we’re bringing eye health services to students in classrooms across our countries of work.
“Our school eye health program is giving students more than just access to eyeglasses or sight-saving procedures,” says Dr. Ritu Ghosh, our Global Director of International Programmes. “Together we are giving children the chance to attend school, build social connections and thrive.”
Using innovative technology, such as the Peek Acuity app and KoboToolbox, we are training teachers and community health nurses to identify and refer students with eyesight problems. This enables us to connect students and their families with eye health care as well as their local health care systems.
“By equipping staff and teachers to identify eye health issues, and by creating a referral network with our partners, we are creating sustainable solutions that ensure families have access to eye health care long after a school eye health project wraps up,” Dr. Ghosh adds.
In 2023 in Zambia, we provided primary eye care training to 20 school teachers from 15 schools. As a result, more than 3,500 students were screened for eye health issues, and 269 students received a free pair of eyeglasses.
“These glasses are changing everything in my life for the better,” Salome says. “I am focusing on improving my grades so that I can become a doctor and help other kids like me!”
“I spent many nights crying that I couldn’t be there for my mom who does so much for our family,” Isaac shares. “I feel more confident and happier now that my vision has returned to me.”
"Our corporate elations program is an exciting opportunity for companies to financially support eye health initiatives and engage their staff by providing volunteer opportunities,” explains Subhadip Bhattacharya, our head of fundraising in India.
The oldest of four kids, 14-year-old Isaac is his mother’s biggest helper – assisting with chores like cleaning, sweeping and looking after his younger siblings. But a few years back, Isaac started having problems finding things around the house.
One day, his mom, Samanta, sent him outside to sweep the compound, but he came back complaining that he couldn’t locate the broom. When she went to look for herself, she saw the broom lying on the porch in plain sight and realized there was something wrong with Isaac’s eyesight.
As a single mom, Samanta works hard as a trader in the marketplace in their village of Oponso, in Ghana’s Central Region. She knew that an eye exam, and any subsequent treatments, would be out of her budget.
Hope arrived during an eye health screening at Isaac’s school, where staff identified his eye condition. His younger sister, five-year-old Grace, also got a referral for further examination. The school eye health screening was made possible through our partnerships with Ghana Health Service and Ghana Education Service and funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Child Blindness Program.
The program trains community health nurses and school employees to perform basic eye screenings. Students requiring follow-up receive referrals to the nearest hospital. Because of the increased efficiency, entire schools – students and teachers alike – can be screened in a fraction of the time it would take otherwise.
Samanta brought the two children to our partner hospital, Watborg Eye Services, in nearby Accra, and both received diagnoses for cataracts. They were quickly scheduled in for surgery, which was provided free of charge.
Three weeks later, our program staff caught up with Samanta, who was thrilled with her children’s progress, now that they are free from cataracts. She says little Grace now spends more time outside playing with her friends. As for Isaac, he once again helps around the house, happy that his future is back in focus.
With story and photo files from Isaac Owusu Baffoe
This story was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Operation Eyesight Canada and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Our global team of more than 2,000 community health workers are our first point of contact with many communities. That’s why they need to have the right mix of training and passion.
For 37-year-old Felicia from Obrachire, in southern Ghana, seeing how prescription eyeglasses made it possible for her own daughter to read helped fuel her passion for delivering eye care in her community.
“Due to my daughter’s story, I really love to screen schoolchildren, so I can help identify the eye conditions they may be having and assist them before it becomes too late,” she says.
“I find satisfaction in detecting eye problems in people and assisting them to get the treatment they need.”
Felicia works as a community health nurse, and since receiving additional training in primary eye care, she now provides eye health screenings, education and referrals for people in her own community.
We work with community health nurses like Felicia in communities across Ghana. Not only do they provide eye care, but also health assessments and health education to others in their own community.
When it comes to overall health and well-being, eye health is often the missing piece of a much larger puzzle. Felicia says the training she received from Operation Eyesight is helping her transform the care she provides to her neighbours.
“I can now give my community members an in-depth education on eye health when I go for home visits,” she explains.
“I love to see people in good health. I am passionate about helping the sick to recover.”
Thank you for your compassion and dedication, Felicia!
With files from Dora Ewusi.
Asafora is like many other small villages in central Ghana; its several hundred residents are mostly farmers growing cassava and plantain, and many community members have faced barriers to accessing eye health care.
What sets this community apart? It is the first village in the country we declared Avoidable Blindness-Free.
The December 2022 declaration event was several years in the making and is the product of collaboration between the community, the local government and our partner, Saltpond Government Hospital.
“Avoidable Blindness-Free means that the village is free of untreated vision loss,” explains Emmanuel Kumah, our country director for Ghana. “It also means that people in the community know where to receive care. This is important in communities like Asafora, where there has historically been resistance to receiving eye care.”
Our partnership with Asafora began in 2017 with primary eye care training for 10 local community health nurses. This team conducted door-to-door surveys to identify people with eye conditions, distributed vitamin A supplements and provided basic immunizations. Patients with cataract and other eye conditions were referred to the hospital for treatment.
We conducted a second door-to-door screening in 2021 to see how patients were doing and discovered several patients had refused care.
“We realized there was a lot of resistance to receiving eye care within the community, due to misconceptions about surgery,” Emmanuel explains. “We had to double down on our efforts to educate the community and inspire behavioural change.”
Community health nurses were deployed. They knocked on doors and attended churches, mosques, and child and newborn care sessions where they provided eye health education. Creating awareness and encouraging people to seek eye care helps ensure a village becomes, and stays, Avoidable Blindness-Free.
The declaration event was a landmark for public health in Ghana, and Asafora is the first of many rural villages to be declared Avoidable Blindness-Free in the country.
For six-year-old Blessing, the Gift of Sight has meant more than a critical eye surgery; it has meant life itself.
Two years ago, Blessing was playing near a pile of burning trash in her home village in Ghana when an explosion occurred. Tragically, a piece of metal became embedded in her eye.
Blessing was rushed to a nearby hospital, where her parents received news that no parent wants to hear: their daughter would lose her eye. They were overcome with grief for their daughter’s loss.
“I wish this had happened to me and not my daughter,” her father said.
Although her eye could not be saved, Blessing still required surgery to remove the eye and avoid a life-threatening infection. Her parents struggled financially and knew they could not afford the treatment, but they refused to give up on their little girl.
Blessing was referred to our partner hospital, Watborg Eye Services, where most of the cost of her surgery was covered. After her wound healed, she was fitted with a prosthetic eye.
When our team checked in on Blessing earlier this fall, they found a smiling and active little girl. She has adjusted well to her prosthetic eye and is in her second year of school.
“It’s the expertise of the medical teams at our partner facilities and their ability to act quickly that makes the difference in the lives of patients and families,” says Emmanuel Kumah, our Country Director for Ghana.
“Collaboration between our teams and our partner facilities in the local community is ensuring critical eye care services are available for patients like Blessing every day. We cannot thank Operation Eyesight donors enough for their support!”
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Remus is a top student in his class, but his inability to see the blackboard isolated him from his peers.
“I have always loved school,” says Remus, pictured above standing outside his classroom in Mfantseman, Central Ghana. “I plan to follow in my parents’ footsteps by getting a master’s degree in the future.”
For many years, he struggled to see the blackboard, typically arriving early to get a seat at the front of the room.
“I couldn’t sit with my friends during class. I never understood why I was the only one struggling to see. It made me feel isolated from them.”
Last year, as part of our school eye health program, Remus received a vision exam from his teacher and was referred for a formal exam from the resident optometrist.
“I was prescribed glasses that have changed everything,” he says. “I thought my condition was specific to me and no one else, but there are many other students who received glasses through this program – even one of my friends!”
Remus is now able to see far-off objects with confidence and clarity.
“I’m grateful to be able to see the blackboard while sitting with my friends. I no longer feel like the odd one out at school.”
