This year, hundreds of schoolchildren began their academic journeys with clearer vision and greater confidence in the classroom.
That’s because your support in 2025 kept our mobile clinics on the road, taking essential eye-care services to under-resourced communities. Thank you!
Four mobile clinics run by our Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness visited nine hospitals and 10 schools in 2025, performing 5 052 eye exams, administering treatment to 1 357 patients (1 248 of these patients were school children), and distributing 290 pairs of spectacles. Five hundred and sixteen cataract operations were performed.
Each intervention improves a child’s sight: strengthening their ability to learn, to participate in lessons, and to engage fully in life.
One of the children impacted was Amahle, from Witbank.
Before her screening, Amahle’s world was fading to a blur. She was struggling with her schoolwork and had stopped reading her favourite stories out loud.
Her mother simply could not afford eye care.
Then, our wonderful donors stepped in to power a free eye screening programme at Amahle’s school.
A team of optometrists and nurses conducted a full eye exam and provided Amahle with eye drops and new spectacles.
Her vision – and her confidence – was instantly restored!
While Amahle is one success story, thousands of children in South Africa have their potential held back by poverty and limited access to professional eye care.
Uncorrected refractive error is the leading cause of childhood vision problems. Yet up to 75% of these cases can be treated if detected early.
With your ongoing support, we will continue to take vital eye care into communities in 2026 and beyond: opening more doors to brighter futures!
*Amahle is not her real name.