Eyes are windows to the soul and enhances an individual’s productivity and creativity.
The World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, the event focuses on raising public awareness of blindness and visual impairment as a major international public health issue.
According to the WHO, blindness of chronic condition is on the increase, 80% of the world’s 45 million people aged 50 years are blind, with 90% of blind people living in low-income countries where people face barriers in getting the necessary eye health care. Many related conditions leading to blindness such as cataract, refractive error and glaucoma can be easily treated with timely interventions. TY Danjuma Foundation through its signature program “vision for a brighter future” supports interventions towards reducing the rate of preventable blindness across underserved and hard to reach communities in the country.
Impaired vision has been identified as one of the factors leading to poor academic performance of school children. The provision of school-based eye care programs has great potentials to reduce ocular morbidity and developmental delays caused by childhood visual impairment and blindness. In July 2019, the Foundation through its partnership with Noroware Osula Foundation, improved the eyesight of 1972 pupils, with 502 receiving free glasses in Igbuobazua community, Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State.
The Foundation also embarked on a free eye care mission at FMC Jalingo, through its partnership with CAVSI. The partnership provided free eye care screening, cataract and glaucoma operations in Taraba State
Every year since its inception in 2009, the Foundation has consistently partnered with NGOs in the country to fund projects geared towards improving the eye sights of underserved people in Nigeria.