Two million children worldwide are blind, most of them due to cataracts. However, 40 percent of these children’s vision could have been saved with timely medical intervention. Ahead of World Sight Day next Thursday, the organization Light for the World, which supports people with disabilities, is raising awareness of this issue. This year, the NGO is particularly focusing on children’s eye health, as 450 million children worldwide have eye problems.
According to “Light for the World,” 90 million children suffer from some form of vision loss. The key is early treatment, as the organization stresses. “Light for the World trains local professionals, establishes clinics, and provides them with the necessary medical equipment,” explained the organization’s CEO, Alex Buchinger. Fast action is especially crucial for children who develop cataracts at a very young age. “It is particularly important for children to undergo surgery as quickly as possible. If they do not learn to see in their early years, they will remain blind or severely visually impaired for the rest of their lives, even after surgery,” Buchinger emphasized.
Cataract surgery in children is more complex and demanding than in adults. While adults can undergo surgery under local anesthesia, children need to be operated on under general anesthesia, “Light for the World” pointed out.
In 2023, “Light for the World” conducted eye tests on 299,860 children, provided 5,690 children with glasses, and performed 4,930 eye surgeries. It is essential for young children to learn to see before the age of eight because, until then, the eyes are in a “critical phase,” as the organization explained. During this time, the eyes, including the muscles and nerves that connect them to the brain, learn and practice how to see. After this period, this connection closes.
This is why it is crucial for a child with vision problems—whether short- or farsighted—to receive glasses as soon as possible to avoid dropping out of school. In low-income countries such as Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Uganda, children still leave school early because of vision problems. In Uganda, “Light for the World” has set up an “Optical Workshop” within the public health system to produce customized glasses.
Improving children’s eye health is one of the key goals of “Light for the World.” The organization has established eye health programs in schools, supported hospitals in developing pediatric ophthalmology, and facilitated the production and distribution of glasses and other vision aids. The program began in 2008 with a pilot project in Uganda, initially focusing on uncorrected vision problems with a strong emphasis on school eye health. Additional programs in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, and Mozambique have followed. The focus has been on training and specializing ophthalmologists in children’s eye health, building the necessary infrastructure in hospitals—from equipment to surgical capabilities—and creating a referral system so that even children in remote areas can be identified and treated.
In Austria, 50 percent of the population wears glasses. Cataract surgery is the most common outpatient procedure in the country. Globally, 1.1 billion people live with vision loss, but 90 percent of cases could be avoided or treated with proper medical care. The most common causes of vision loss include cataracts, glaucoma, trachoma, uncorrected refractive errors, and age-related macular degeneration.
