Quality eye health services and social support

A billion people worldwide live with avoidable blindness or visual impairment due to lack of access to eye health services. For many women, men and children living in poverty, access to straightforward interventions such as cataract surgery or a pair of glasses are out of reach. We work to improve access to inclusive and comprehensive eye health services for all, strengthening national eye health systems, making services affordable and accessible to the poorest and most marginalised people, and helping eliminate neglected tropical diseases, even for the most vulnerable groups.

Our inclusive eye health programs

At CBM Global, we want everyone to benefit from inclusive eye health programs. To achieve sustainable outcomes, we ensure that our projects:

  • Are integrated to national health systems and policies rather than being standalone initiatives.
  • Are comprehensive from the promotion of healthy eyes to the prevention of eye diseases.
  • Are curative in medical, surgical and optical intervention.
  • Enable access to rehabilitation services, utilising local government and community approaches.
  • Strengthen support for people with permanent vision impairment so that no-one is left behind.

Ensuring inclusion

Other key areas that are particularly important to CBM Global to ensure inclusion are:

  • Understanding the impact of stigma.
  • Addressing design and accessibility barriers.
  • Directly consulting with people with disabilities and their respective organisations​.
  • Lobbying for government and policy support​.
  • Connecting through community-based programs​.
  • Ensuring barriers for women and girls are addressed​.

Tackling Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)

CBM Global supports NTD programmes in areas where these diseases are identified as a public health problem. We tackle NTDs by:

  • Breaking the infectious cycle through mass drug administration.
  • Helping those already affected by these infectious diseases.
  • Preventing these diseases through Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH).