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Touch of Light UK has been established with the primary objective of eradicating preventable blindness in deprived parts of the world. We hope to restore sight through sending an experienced team of Ophthalmic Surgeons to deliver specialist eye care.
Worldwide, more than 161 million people are visually impaired, of this total in excess of 44 million individuals are completely blind. The World Health Organisation stated that 80% of blindness across the globe was avoidable, with 7 million people losing their sight every year, and 9 out of 10 individuals residing in developing countries. We begin with our maiden expedition to Ghana, West Africa, in July 2009. The estimated population of Ghana is 23 million. Over 267,000 Ghanaians suffer from total blindness, and more than 7.4 million are afflicted with sight threatening diseases. Cataract refractive errors accounts for at least 50% of treatable blindness, trachoma contributes to 15% of this fraction, and other important causes include river blindness (onchocerciasis), diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and sickle cell retinopathy. Touch of Light UK strives to treat those afflicted with reversible eye disease and prevent others from needlessly losing their vision. Poverty, shortage of trained medical staff and lack of resources form the core reasons why people continue to go blind from preventable conditions. We aim to deliver free specialist eye care to all those who are in dire need, and concurrently, we hope to train local doctors, nurses and healthcare volunteers to manage and educate patients in the future. |