Ordinary people - Amazing things

Wotton Lions raised over £2500 in support of this project

Building upon its long-standing tradition of aiding the blind and visually impaired in local communities, in 1990 Lions Clubs International established SightFirst, an aggressive global blindness prevention initiative.

The unprecedented programme joins leading blindness prevention experts, blindness prevention organisations, governments and Lion volunteers in an effort to establish long-term solutions in eliminating preventable and reversible blindness. World-wide, SightFirst projects, funded by Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF), are developed to fill the gaps between what is being done and what needs to be done by targeting the leading causes of blindness affecting large regional populations.

Since SightFirst was launched, 485 grants have been approved totalling US$102.1 million. SightFirst projects to fight cataract, train ophthalmic personnel, develop infrastructure and combat river blindness are underway in 75 countries on six continents. To finance SightFirst projects, Lions conducted Campaign SightFirst, a three-year fundraising effort that raised over US$144 million. Most of these contributions came from Lions around the world.

While the majority of SightFirst projects are established in developing nations where blindness is most prevalent, SightFirst also funds an educational outreach initiative in developed countries called Lions Eye Health Programme (LEHP).