CharityProfile Sightsavers

Sussex charity improving lives since 1950. By Lynn Smith

Worldwide there are some 2.2billion people suffering with visual impairment, but, says Sussex based charity Sightsavers, nearly half of this impairment is preventable or treatable. Sightsavers works in over 30 of the world’s poorest countries where limited health systems and significant challenges accessing treatment leave millions with sight problems. Blindness can prevent people already living below the poverty line from earning a living, drawing their family into a spiral of greater poverty. Ella Pierce, Director of Fundraising and Marketing at Sightsavers, tells me that, “We work to prevent people from unnecessarily losing their sight, from treating eye conditions such as cataract and prescribing glasses, to campaigning for the rights of people with disabilities and distributing treatments for neglected tropical diseases, such as trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness. “Thanks to our incredible supporters we are able to reach thousands of people each year, working

Archana, a cataract beneficiary being screened at a local screening camp in Odisha, India to end avoidable blindness and promote equality of opportunity for people with disabilities.”

Sussex based international organisation

Although Sightsavers is an international organisation, working in countries across Africa and Asia, its global headquarters are in Haywards Heath and like many of the organisation’s staff, Ella

Pierce lives in Sussex, working alongside

Sightsavers staff internationally. Ella says that

Sightsavers is well known locally and that, “My (own) earliest memory of Sightsavers was seeing the charity featured on Blue Peter, whose 1986 appeal gave us our name.”

Founded by Sir John and Lady Wilson in 1950,

Sightsavers was initially based in London until, in 1971, the organisation moved to a new head office in Haywards Heath. John Wilson was blinded in an accident during a school chemistry lesson, at the age of twelve - he always maintained that he didn’t think the event was tragic and referred to his blindness as nothing more than a

“confounded nuisance”. Following an extended tour of Africa and the Middle East, and shocked at the scale of blindness and the living conditions he witnessed, Sir John returned home determined to do something about it. Estalishing a non -government organisation to address the prevention of blindness and provide rehabilitation for those whose sight couldn’t be saved. The organisation became Sightsavers and Sir John campaigned until his death in 1999. Lady Wilson remains closely involved as vice president and still lives in Sussex.

Visualising a world where avoidable blindness is eliminated Since its inception the charity has provided 7.7 million cataract operations, 196 million eye examinations and 4.6 million pairs of glasses. Sightsavers vision is of a world where avoidable blindness is eliminated, and where people with visual impairments and other disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else. Working in partnership with governments and other organisations to help people in need today, Sightsavers also works to strengthen health and education systems, so that countries can deliver their own services long into the future. Ella goes on to say, “At the heart of our ethos is delivering eye health and inclusion projects of the highest standards, and working efficiently, sustainably and transparently to have the greatest possible long-term impact.” A goal only achievable, Ella says, thanks to the generosity of the charity’s loyal supporters. Tackling childhood cataracts Globally the leading cause of blindness is cataract, a disease that, if left untreated, can cause eventual blindness. Associated with older people in the UK, cataracts can also be present from birth and in many poorer countries, where

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healthcare and treatment may be less readily available, childhood cataracts can be a major cause of blindness, which, if not treated early can be irreversible. This is an area Ella is particularly passionate about: “I have been lucky enough to see for myself how a straightforward cataract operation can transform a child’s life.” Other causes of concern include neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), including trachoma and river blindness. Trachoma is particularly cruel with people experiencing extreme pain as scarring to the eyelid pulls the eyelashes inward, so with every blink they scrape against the eye. 800 million people with sight loss and other disabilities in low- and middle- income countries Many visual impairments are not curable and many of those with sight loss are routinely denied basic human rights. Sightsavers, “Believes everyone has the right to learn, earn and be happy, which is why we promote equal opportunities for people with visual impairments and other disabilities.” Most of Sightsavers programmes had to pause during the Covid-19 pandemic but have now resumed with the charity working hard to catch up and reach people who struggled to access help through the pandemic. Ella says, “It became apparent that people with disabilities, particularly women and girls, were being more harshly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic than the wider population. Sightsavers had had previous experience in dealing with the Ebola health crisis and already had vital knowledge in adapting programmes during a health emergency. “This helped inform our response to the Covid-19 pandemic… and quickly identified how we needed to adapt our programmes to still reach people safely.”

230 Charity Profile

A gift of just £28 can help restore the sight of an adult with cataract Sightsavers, Ella says, is “Fortunate to receive incredible support from individuals who donate to our work or leave a gift in their will. We hugely value their commitment, generosity, and involvement.” People also help by fundraising, or by signing petitions, sharing information, contacting politicians etc. “We also have some fantastic corporate supporters and receive vital funding from governments, trusts, foundations, global philanthropists, and other institutions that support the charity’s mission… Every single gift… makes a huge difference to the people we help.” Sightsavers also receives donated drugs to treat certain NTDs; medication donated directly by the manufacturers as a ‘gift in kind’ – it can cost as little as £60 to protect a whole community against trachoma. The charity is excited that last year the Gambia eliminated trachoma, becoming the second country in subSaharan Africa to do so. Ella tells me that a key element in much of the charity’s work is training local health workers, including cataract surgeons, specialist teachers and health volunteers to provide their community with the eye care service it needs. Which is, crucial to the long-term sustainability of programmes. Unless eye health services improve the number of blind people could triple by 2050 When I ask what challenges the charity faces, Ella says that the main one that springs to mind is the sheer scale. Even so, treatment for blindness is widely accepted to be among the most straightforward, scalable, successful and cost effective of all health interventions. There is also the challenge of funding the gaps left by the UK government cutting its aid budget. The charity urgently needs to recoup millions of pounds of funding lost, from its trachoma work, if it’s to stay on target to eliminate these diseases. “The other challenge in the Covid battle for Sightsavers, is how we ensure we are supporting people with disabilities, to ensure they are included in the Covid response and can access the information and health care they need. This is a hugely important part of what we do.” 01444 446600 www.sightsavers.org