ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT
January • 2024
ADVERTORIAL
© COURTESY OF SEVA FOUNDATION
Every $1 Invested in Eye Health Returns $36 in Benefits Across Society Everything starts with sight. The ability to dress ourselves, cook a meal, learn at school, earn a living, and even read these very words first rests on our ability to see. Sight is critical and intricately woven into every facet of life—and yet, today, a shocking one in four people live with vision impairment, and they don’t have to. Millions of lives are put at a standstill each year, all for a pair of eyeglasses, medication, or a simple 15-minute cataract surgery. Nearly 90 percent of people with vision loss live in lowand middle-income countries, where access to eye care is often unavailable. In these countries, a life without sight often results in a life trapped in poverty: children struggle to receive an education and may leave school, parents can't find work, and entire families' lives are shifted. Vision loss is a public
health crisis—one that has been grossly overlooked on the global health agenda. We know, and the World Health Organization has agreed, that restoring sight is proven to be one of the most cost-effective interventions for reducing poverty. Since 1978, Seva Foundation, a global eye care organization, has worked to address this crisis by creating equitable and sustainable access to vision services in remote parts of the world. Through Seva’s network, over 57 million people across 20+ countries have received vital and life-transforming eye care services. Without signif icant investments, however, the demand for these services will only continue to rise. It’s expected that 1.8 billion people will live with preventable or treatable vision loss, mostly in developing countries, if drastic action on eye health is not taken.
Seva Foundation recently released a groundbreaking new report in the World Health Organization Bulletin that unequivocally proves every $1 invested in eye health returns $36 in benefits across society, be it improved learning, better income, or increased productivity. That’s because restoring sight has an immediate and profound effect on the individual who regained their vision. With clear sight, they can go back to school, work, and contribute to their communities. The caregiver also gets their life back, no longer having to look after their loved one. We talk about helping those in need and changing the world—solving the crisis of avoidable blindness achieves both. Correcting vision costs as little as $10 per year per person—it’s inexpensive, and it’s scalable. On top of that,
the solutions already exist and don't require reinvention—eyeglasses have been around for 700 years, and cataract surgery has substantially improved over the last 40. Despite how addressable this problem is and the millions of lives that would be transformed, eye health has taken a backseat on many nations' agendas for too long. This is in spite of the fact that the return on eye health outpaces typical returns of other health domains: nutrition ($13), non-communicable diseases ($9), and all general development ($6). In other words, private and public funds directed specifically to eye health are six times more eff icient than capital invested in typical development interventions. Organizations like Seva Foundation work to help f ill this void—their groundbreaking plan, “Guatemala Brillando,” is
poised to eliminate avoidable blindness in the nation by 2032, creating access to eye care for the entire country's 17 million people. Seva’s also investing in a revolutionary new eye technology to better detect and diagnose conditions that occur on the back of the eye, capable of reducing AIDS -related blindness by half. We’d go as far as to say that we’re trying to work ourselves out of a job. That’s because the crisis of avoidable blindness is completely solvable. It’s a question not of if but when. No matter the circumstance, vision is required in every aspect of culture, country, and community. It all starts with sight, and it’s in all of our best interests to start addressing it now. To learn more about our new report, visit seva.org/eyehealthstudy or scan the QR code below.
