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A Christmas miracle – for just £17

Stuck for an idea for your nearest and dearest this Christmas? Want to buy something more satisfying than the new Da Vinci Code DVD? Why not impress a loved one no end and make a miracle happen by assisting somebody in the developing world to see again. 

Sightsavers International’s online alternative giving scheme, Gift of Sight, is now in its second year and the most popular selling present is a cataract operation. This simple operation costs, on average, £17 to perform on an adult and £27 on a child, and takes a mere 20 minutes to perform. Yet for individuals in some of the world’s most disadvantaged countries, the impact of having their sight restored will last a lifetime.

According to the British Retail Consortium, children in the UK at Christmas receive presents totalling a value of more than £250. Sightsavers, one of the UK’s leading blindness charities, is asking people to consider spending the equivalent of just one-tenth of that on transforming the life of a child like Jewel who will treasure his precious gift for many a Christmas to come. 

Eight-year-old Jewel from Bangladesh knows just how miraculous a cataract operation can be. Blind from the age of four, he had to drop out of his local school because they were unable to cope with his disability. Following surgery, he is now enrolled again and able to view his future with fresh hope. But he’s one of the lucky ones – 90% of children who are blind in the developing world aren’t in school.

Jewel was identified as being in need of surgery through Sightsavers’ Bangladesh Childhood Cataract Campaign. Every minute across the world another child loses his or her vision and, in 2004, Sightsavers pledged to track down every child in Bangladesh who is needlessly blind due to cataract. This will mean surgery on around 10,000 children between now and 2009.

Paying for a cataract operation through the Gift of Sight contributes to much more than just the surgery itself.  It also helps fund the pre-screening process, the patient’s transport costs, training of ophthalmic staff and educational materials.

Other inspirational Christmas shopping ideas can be found on the Gift of Sight website: www.giftofsight.co.uk Once the purchase has been made, the recipient receives a card and voucher explaining how the gift supports Sightsavers’ projects in eye care, education and the rehabilitation of people who are blind and visually impaired. 

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For further press information, case studies or photographs, please contact Ann Noon on 01444 446728, anoon@sightsavers.org  For media enquiries out of hours, please call 07775 928253.


 

Statistics

Working with partners last year, we helped to:

  • Treat over 15.7 million people for potentially blinding conditions
  • Carry out 217,054 cataract operation
  • Train 48,731 primary eye care workers

Related Information

  • It costs just £27 for a child cataract operation