Light Up Lives appeal aims to bring fresh vision to Zimbabwe
Christian overseas disability charity CBM is warning that hundreds of thousands of people are living needlessly blind in Zimbabwe â and the situation is worsening due to Covid-19. The charity has launched Light Up Lives, a fundraising appeal to improve access to sight-saving treatment and until 20 May all public donations will be doubled by the UK government.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world. A study in one region found that 3.7% of people aged over 50 were blind. The leading cause is cataracts, which can be treated with straightforward surgery. But a desperate shortage of trained eye health workers and equipment means that, for too many people, treatment is out of reach. And in the last year, Covid has made the situation much worse.