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The Fred Hollows Foundation, SHE SEES Campaign 

There is a gender gap in almost every aspect of women’s lives. Access to education, political representation, employment opportunities, wage disparity and even physical safety are areas where women across the world are frequently at a disadvantage. What is not commonly known is the gender gap that exists when it comes to sight.

55% of the world’s blind are women. In every region of the world, women are more likely to be blind or vision impaired than men.

More than 20 million women in the world are blind and a further 120 million are vision impaired. Most women who are visually impaired live in low or middle income countries. Women living in poverty are at greater risk of becoming blind and are less likely to access care. Blindness can further entrench existing gender-based inequities and reduce women’s ability to achieve financial independence.

We believe in equal right to sight . 

To help close the gender gap The Fred Hollows Foundation has launched the SHE SEES Campaign. SHE SEES is our commitment to address gender disparity in blindness as a key global health issue. SHE SEES is working to deliver of high quality programs for women around the world.

Through SHE SEES, The Fred Hollows Foundation is committed to placing women and girls firmly at the centre of our programs, partnerships, and global advocacy work. We are committed to ensuring women get access to eye health services.

We want to help women like Thol (pictured above) whose whole family was transformed when she received sight-restoring cataract surgery. Thol’s children had been trying to support their mother and provide for themselves, but with her sight restored Thol was able to work to support her family and her children could go to school. This is the dramatic impact of SHE SEES for just one woman. Help us help thousands of other women see.

The Fred Hollows Foundation is committed to improving access to eye health for women in 5 key ways:

1. Focused Programs: Pioneering innovative programs that bring quality eye care to tens of thousands of women.

2: Training women to become eye doctors, health workers and eye health professionals.

3. Access: Ensuring more women are having the eye surgeries by providing transport to eye health facilities to reduce barriers and out-of-pocket expenses.

4. Outreach: Our community outreach services are targeting women in remote and rural villages.

5. Mothers: Integrating eye health services in maternal and reproductive health facilities to give pregnant women and mothers access to eye health screening.

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