A joint effort to give everyone the right to sight
Forty five millon people are blind worldwide, yet 80% of blindness is avoidable
VISION 2020 member organisations are working together to eliminate avoidable blindness worldwide by the year 2020, in order to give everyone in the world the Right to Sight. As one corporate member, Carl Zeiss is working to make this vision a reality by helping people help themselves.
For example, we have committed ourselves to setting up ophthalmology training centres in five different regions of the world within five years. The first one was opened in Bandung, Indonesia in 2007. To equip this centre and train staff, we provided financial resources, slit lamps, therapeutic lasers and a surgical microscope. Together with the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness, we have coordinated training programmes.
In addition to these training centres, Carl Zeiss has also successfully partnered VISION 2020 in other initiatives. These include skills development and transfer and in equipping and upgrading existing training centres, in India, Africa and other parts of the developing world.
