Giving Sight to the Cataract Blind

There are 285 million people visually impaired worldwide: 39 million are blind and 246 million have low vision. Without increased efforts to prevent blindness, this figure is set to double over the next 25 years. Some 90% of blindness occurs in the developing world and two out of every three people who are blind are women. Whereas 75% of global blindness is preventable or treatable.

However, 90% of the world’s visually impaired live in developing countries. According to WHO (World Health Organisation) estimates, 80% of all visual impairment can be avoided or cured. According to the latest survey by National Blindness Prevalence (NBP), there are 1.49 to 1.54 million people estimated blind in Pakistan.

There are 945,000 blind people in Punjab; 310,000 in Sindh; and 85,000 in Baluchistan and 183,000 in the North Western Province. Most of this blindness is preventable and/or treatable.

Approximately 70% of people affected by blindness in Pakistan live in remote areas of the country and are unable to travel to cities where the majority of services are located.

In order to ensure that these patients get treatment, Fatima Memorial Hospital established a department in year 2000 with state of the art ophthalmic diagnostic and therapeutic equipment such as operating microscopes, Phaco-emulsification and micro incision procedures are performed as a routine in the department of ophthalmology.

The number of patients who come to Fatima Memorial Hospital is on the rise and we are unable to cater to all of them; because of which, we require your support to enhance our infrastructure subsequent to which these underprivileged will be able to gain their lost sight. Eyesight is a blessing and there is a huge number of individuals who have lost their sight to cataract.

We, at Fatima Memorial Hospital urge you to continue the support and help us in making this program grow to every corner of Pakistan.

Thank you for your continued support!