HOW come?

• Around the world, 285 million people live with low vision and blindness.
• Vision problems are reaching epidemic proportions, especially in the developing world.
  
• Of those suffering with vision loss, 90 per cent live in developing countries.
• People who live in India, Africa and South America are five to 10 times more likely to go blind than people who live in industrialized nations.
  

Why is blindness so prevalent in the developing world? There are many causes including poverty, and inadequate access to clean water and proper nutrition. In parts of the world where it's a struggle simply to survive, many people have neither a healthy living environment nor access to affordable medical care or education. If living conditions threaten sight, it's often impossible to prevent or treat vision loss. Ultimately, the loss of sight can destroy a person's livelihood – or even life itself.

Learn more about the various kinds of vision diseases and causes