The oldest of five children, Thandiwe in Zambia has always looked after her younger siblings. When the village borehole broke down, she had to fetch water from the river, and her family couldn’t wash as often. Thandiwe noticed some of her siblings had itchy, red eyes. Soon, she developed the same eye condition. Her left… Continue reading Gender inequalities in vision loss
Tag: women
Empowering women in unexpected ways
Blindness is a gender issue. Blindness discriminates. Fifty-five per cent of the world’s blind are women and girls. More than 20 million women and girls are blind, and 120 million are visually impaired. Four out of five people who are blind don’t need to be. And this injustice is magnified in developing countries. Women face… Continue reading Empowering women in unexpected ways
Health worker brings light to her community
The last of the sun’s rays cast over a small village near the India-Bangladesh border. Nurbhanu is finishing up her final house call of the day. As a community health worker with Operation Eyesight’s Community-Based Eye Health Project in West Bengal, India, she is used to working late into the evening. Tomorrow, a team from… Continue reading Health worker brings light to her community
Women, water and the Run for “Well”ness
Today is International Women’s Day and we’re talking water. Why? In areas where water is scarce, it is usually women and girls who are responsible for fetching water. This often involves walking several kilometres each day with the very present danger of being attacked by wild animals. And for girls, it means they either miss… Continue reading Women, water and the Run for “Well”ness