No matter the size of the stone, the impact spreads in widening circles.  

The same is true in international development and eye health care. 

How the ripple effect shaped our work in 2025 

Every gift of sight creates ripples that transform lives. For girls and boys, women and men, restored sight opens doors to education, employment and independence. Those benefits don’t stop there – they carry on, extending through families, communities and even the global economy: Vision loss costs an estimated US $411 billion in lost productivity each year, according to a 2021 article in The Lancelet Global Health Journal. 

In 2025, your support meant everything. It was a year when the “pool of water” was anything but still. Yet our global community came together. Your collective generosity created nothing short of seismic waves of impact across 10 countries. 

Every year, your support empowers our teams and partners to screen millions of people, provide hundreds of thousands of those with vision loss with prescription eyeglasses and perform hundreds of thousands of cataract surgeries (2025 data and details will be shared in our 2025 annual report). 

Thank you for standing in solidarity with us, with communities, and with our teams and partners around the world – For All the World to See! 

2025 Highlights 

Here are some of our 2025 milestones and accomplishments that were achieved thanks to your support.  

Global  

Impact recognition 

For the eighth consecutive year, Operation Eyesight was named a Top 10 Impact Charity by Charity Intelligence Canada. 

Growing global reach

We doubled traffic to our global website, raising awareness about the importance of eye health and how it impacts lives, communities and countries.

Cataract surgery success

With your support, we raised $410,000 CAD for our nine-country cataract surgery initiative, surpassing our $405,000 goal. This will fund an additional 5,400 cataract surgeries, some of which are already underway. For each country, this means the following additional cataract surgeries:

• 400 in each of Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi and Nepal
• 1,000 in Ghana
• 900 in India
• 800 in Kenya
• 700 in Zambia

Why it matters: Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide. One surgery, including supports such as travel, costs approximately $75 CAD. Cataract surgery is one of the most cost-effective health interventions, according to the IAPB Vision Atlas.

Saidur’s story shows how cataract surgery changes lives. At 70, Saidur, from Bangladesh, was nearly blind and unable to work. After cataract surgery, he said, “I am very happy to be able to see my grandchildren. I can finally earn a living again.”  Watch his ripple effect story.

Africa

Ethiopia

A World Sight Day school eye health initiative led to the screening of 1,200 students in Bahir Dar City. Students in need also received free prescription eyeglasses.

Amanuel, Bereket and Amen pose after getting their eyes screened at school leading up to World Sight Day.

Ghana

We expanded our School Eye Health Program to Shai Osu Doku district. Program Coordinator Isaac Baffoe has been working closely with schools to reach even more children. See how the program works and how it helps students access quality education.

Kenya

With new funding from Johnson & Johnson, we launched our Hospital-Based Community Eye Health Model in four underserved counties. Tens of thousands of people have already participated in door-to-door screenings, and more than 2,000 cataract surgeries will be performed. See how this project brings eye health care closer to home in rural areas.

Malawi

We opened our first vision centre in Malawi, greatly reducing travel for patients and improving access to care.

Our Malawi team and partners attend the opening of the new vision centre, which will serve more than 256,000 people.

Zambia

We rehabilitated 72 boreholes, exceeding our target of 69 and improving access to clean water for more than 50,000 people.

Community members gather water at a borehole in Zambia.

North America

Canada

• In April, we partnered with the Maskwacîs Education Schools Commission and the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation to deliver a weeklong vision care clinic. More than 400 students received eye exams, and many received prescription eyeglasses.

Caption: A child has his eyes screened during a weeklong vision care clinic conducted in partnership with Maskwacîs Education Schools Commission and the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation.

In June, we participated in the Rotary International Convention in Calgary. Since the early 1980s, 474 Rotary clubs have contributed $3.88 million, not including direct grants to our partners. Since 2020, 23 clubs have made more than 3,100 gifts, totaling $748,565.

Members of our team connected with hundreds of Rotary club members and attendees at the Rotary International Convention in Calgary in June. 

On World Sight Day, October 9, Kris Kelm, our Global Director, International Programs and Chair of the Canadian Eye Health Coalition, hosted a global webinar, and landmarks across Canada lit up in our brand colours to raise awareness.

The Calgary Tower (see below) lit up in orange and blue, our brand colours, for World Sight Day to raise awareness of the importance of eye health care. The CN Tower, Guelph Market Square and Winnipeg Esplanade Riel Bridge also displayed our colours.

This fall, we celebrated Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, at events in Calgary and Toronto, and another in London, United Kingdom, strengthening connections with Indian diaspora communities and expanding support for our work in South Asia and around the world.

Members of our Canada team attend a Diwali event in Calgary.

In the week leading up to Giving Tuesday, December 2, through the collective support of donors, we surpassed our original target of $35,000 and raised $63,166.61 thanks to the dollar-for-dollar matching funds ($45,000) from our anonymous donors!  This resulted in a total of $108,266.61raisied to support additional cataract surgeries.

South Asia

Bangladesh

Leading up to World Sight Day, our partners screened 1,719 people, including 1,627 schoolchildren at 11 schools. A total of 183 people received free prescription eyeglasses.

A student has her eyes examined during a school eye heath screening in Bangladesh.

India

We renewed our partnership with the National Health Mission, Government of Madhya Pradesh, to strengthen eye health services across 10 districts. This marked a significant step in strengthening people-centred eye health systems across the state.

Anchored in the World Health Organization’s Integrated People-Centred Eye Care (IPEC) framework, the initiative delivers sustainable, community-focused eye care fully integrated into the public health system. Currently, we’re implementing IPEC interventions across 17 districts in Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya, in partnership with the state Ministries of Health. This work restores more than sight – it restores dignity, independence and livelihoods for entire communities.

Nepal

Our President and CEO Kashinath Bhoosnurmath attended the IAPB LIVE In Sight conference in Kathmandu, bringing together global leaders and policy-makers to advance universal eye health.

Thank you for your support. Full 2025 details and data will be shared in our 2025 Annual Report.

Make a ripple effect of your own.

Donate today to make a ripple in 2026.

The post 2025 Highlights: The Ripple Effect  appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

What sets this community apart? It is the first village in the country we declared Avoidable Blindness-Free.

The December 2022 declaration event was several years in the making and is the product of collaboration between the community, the local government and our partner, Saltpond Government Hospital.

“Avoidable Blindness-Free means that the village is free of untreated vision loss,” explains Emmanuel Kumah, our country director for Ghana. “It also means that people in the community know where to receive care. This is important in communities like Asafora, where there has historically been resistance to receiving eye care.”

Our partnership with Asafora began in 2017 with primary eye care training for 10 local community health nurses. This team conducted door-to-door surveys to identify people with eye conditions, distributed vitamin A supplements and provided basic immunizations. Patients with cataract and other eye conditions were referred to the hospital for treatment.

We conducted a second door-to-door screening in 2021 to see how patients were doing and discovered several patients had refused care.

“We realized there was a lot of resistance to receiving eye care within the community, due to misconceptions about surgery,” Emmanuel explains. “We had to double down on our efforts to educate the community and inspire behavioural change.”

Community health nurses were deployed. They knocked on doors and attended churches, mosques, and child and newborn care sessions where they provided eye health education. Creating awareness and encouraging people to seek eye care helps ensure a village becomes, and stays, Avoidable Blindness-Free.

The declaration event was a landmark for public health in Ghana, and Asafora is the first of many rural villages to be declared Avoidable Blindness-Free in the country.

The post Sustainable impact through community partnership appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

In Canada, as we have seen around the world, the mitigation efforts in confronting COVID-19 are focused on the behaviours of the individual, the family and the community. Prevention is essential and community empowerment is vital.

The lessons from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa document the key role the community played in stopping the disease. Defeating COVID-19 requires leveraging and unleashing the power of community action to implement prevention measures and to strengthen hygiene. Empowering the community to take action explicitly aimed at behaviour change will minimize the spread of COVID-19.

Operation Eyesight will ensure clear guidance on risk, prevention and awareness of symptoms are available to the communities where we work and to the broader community.

Operation Eyesight works with the local government and partner hospitals in Sub Saharan Africa where our eye health initiatives have been implemented and with partner hospitals in India, Nepal and Bangladesh to try to get in front of the crisis and help ‘flatten the curve’.

During this crisis, Operation Eyesight, building on our strong local partnerships and community based programming, will focus on:

• Responding accordingly to heightened challenges to women and girls in developing countries during the pandemic when females are designated as the primary caregiver;
• Providing clean water and promoting safe hygiene and sanitation, including access to water supplies, hand washing stations, hygiene kits etc.
• Working to ensure adequate essential supplies like soap, disinfectants, and medications to treat infectious eye diseases that irritate the eyes such as trachoma continue to be available;
• Educating and empowering front line health workers and Community Health Workers (mostly women) on infection, prevention and control measures
• Facilitating the distribution of COVID-19 educational materials to keep our vulnerable communities informed.

The window of opportunity is closing. Help us help the communities that you have supported for eye health to meet the challenges of COVID-19.

Click here to donate and change lives

More on COVID-19

The post The Time is Now and Community Empowerment is Key appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Alice Mwangi is our country manager in Kenya, and she’s worked with Operation Eyesight for the last eight years.

We’re always excited for the chance to talk to our international team members because they have incredible experiences to share from their time in the field – and Alice had quite the story to tell!

Alice has seen how the work we do transforms the communities we help in Kenya. She told us that one reason Operation Eyesight is well-respected in the eye health sector by our partners and the governments we work with is because of our integrity.

“Our partners value us because they know that Operation Eyesight follows through,” she says. “Our partners trust us to do what we say we’re going to do, and that’s how we work together effectively.”

We wanted to know what Alice enjoyed most about her work on the ground, and this is what she told us:

“What I enjoy is being allowed to think creatively within the  Hospital-Based Community Eye Health Program’s framework. We’re encouraged to adapt the model to suit the community being served, based on their culture and infrastructure.

“Households appreciate being visited by community health workers. They can’t believe that nurses are coming to their doorstep to check on them and refer them for treatment.”

Alice’s passion for her work comes from her own experiences, seeing our work in person. She has witnessed how people’s lives completely changed after receiving sight-restoring treatment.

“One thing that really inspires me is seeing how many people’s lives are restored when sight is restored. Our team meets people who feel like they’ve been condemned to die because they’ve gone blind – they can’t work, they can’t participate in their communities and they feel hopeless. In so many cases they’re extremely isolated, and they don’t know where to go to seek help.

“So, when a community health worker comes to their door and tells them they can get their sight back, their faces light up with joy and hope. When they receive sight-restoring treatment, they’re reborn, and they have hope again. They can go back to working and participating in their community. It’s incredible to be a part of that.”

Alice told us that because so many of the communities we serve are so far away from the resources they need, patients need transport to and from our partner hospital or nearest vision centre. Sometimes the partner hospital will provide transport, but our staff have field vehicles specifically for the transportation of staff and patients.

In some cases, a village is too remote, and doesn’t have the necessary infrastructure to build a local vision centre. In those cases, it’s easier to set up an eye camp in a village and bring the ophthalmic staff to them. Community health workers go door-to-door, telling people about the eye camp and referring people who need a diagnosis.

It’s difficult to reach communities that are so far away and hard to access, but Alice is fueled by her passion and dedication to reach absolutely everyone with the quality eye care they need.

“One story that has stayed with me is about an older man who had gone completely blind. He lived in West Pokot, in a hilly region that’s incredibly remote. He had heard about Operation Eyesight, and his daughter walked with him to Lomut Health Center to seek treatment. The health center is a satellite facility for the Kapenguria Eye Unit. He told me he had walked 12 hours! I could hardly believe it. He had heard about Operation Eyesight and the work we do, and his desire to see again was enough to carry him through the long hours of walking to seek treatment.

“When he reached the health centre, he learned that he had been suffering from cataracts. Soon after, he received sight-restoring cataract surgery, and he was so excited! He couldn’t believe he had his sight back. 

“His treatment was completely paid for thanks to the support of our donors, and an Operation Eyesight shuttle bus was arranged to take him and his daughter home. The shuttle drove as far as possible before paying a local motorbike taxi to take them the rest of the way. In remote communities like his, there are no roads for traveling easily by car, and the most effective mode of transport is by motorbike. That’s how far away this man lived! Unfortunately, his circumstances aren’t unique. Many of the communities we serve are similarly remote and difficult to access. Even so, our team works hard to reach these communities to bring them quality eye care.

“I just remember how this man’s face lit up when the bandages were removed after his surgery! His smile stretched across his face, and he could SEE again. His many hours of walking were not in vain. With his sight restored, his independence and his hope were as well. It’s always inspiring to meet people like this man and see how their lives are transformed after eye surgery.”

We’re so proud to have Alice in the Operation Eyesight family!

And it’s people like YOU who make her work possible. Together we’re transforming entire communities through the gift of sight – For All The World To See!

The post A woman with a passion for restoring sight and transforming lives appeared first on Operation Eyesight.