Targeting eye health alone isn’t enough to eliminate avoidable blindness; if other health care needs aren’t met, there will still be people suffering from vision problems or other conditions. For example, vitamin A deficiency results in preventable childhood blindness, and increases the risk of death from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhea.

With your help, we’re enabling poor communities to lead healthier and more productive lives. Not only do we educate target communities about eye health, but we also address their essential health care needs. Our trained community health workers educate communities about eye health and general health (such as the importance of vitamin A) and create awareness of the eye care services available in or around the community. They also collaborate with health care staff to deliver services such as immunizations.

We’re always proud to report the number of sight-restoring cataract surgeries performed or prescription eyeglasses dispensed, but the pinnacle of our work is the healthy communities that are empowered to lead happy and productive lives. For example, we’ve declared 1,020 villages as avoidable blindness-free. In these villages, mortality rates have dropped significantly and school enrollment rates have increased.

Thanks to YOU, entire communities have been transformed!

There are still thousands of communities that need your help! Please donate today to prevent blindness and restore sight to some of the most vulnerable people in Africa and Asia.

The post With healthy eyes, entire communities are thriving because of YOU! appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

However, those of us in the international eye health community are watching with interest one particular crop: golden rice. Developed in 1999, this genetically engineered rice helps combat blindness and death in children – one typical daily serving supplies a whopping 60 percent of the vitamin A critical for healthy eyes!

Over the years, Operation Eyesight and other international NGOs have worked steadily to distribute Vitamin A supplements to mothers and children in developing countries. However, the need is still immense. The World Health Organization states, “Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children and increases the risk of disease and death from severe infections.”

While growing crops may be outside our mandate, we will be interested in future research about golden rice and its potential for helping prevent blindness. If you’d like to read more, check out this Slate.com story.

The post Golden rice helps make Vitamin A deficiency blindness a thing of the past appeared first on Operation Eyesight.