UK aid boosts Sightsavers’ fundraising to prevent avoidable blindness

Sightsavers’ latest fundraising appeal has raised more than £5 million, including £2 million of matched funding from the UK government.

The End is in Sight campaign, which launched in February 2019, benefited from the government’s UK Aid Match fund, which matched all donations pound for pound for the first three months.

The End is in Sight is raising money to help eliminate trachoma, a potentially blinding eye disease. Repeated infections cause the eyelashes to turn inwards and scrape painfully against the eyeball, which can eventually lead to blindness. Yet it is treatable with an antibiotic that costs as little as 15p per treatment. Sightsavers is aiming to eliminate the disease as a public health problem in most of the countries where it works by 2025.

Recent figures released by the World Health Organization show the number of people at risk of blinding trachoma has fallen by 91 per cent in the past 17 years. About 1.5 billion people were at risk of catching the disease in 2002, compared with 142 million today.

Sightsavers fundraising director Becki Jupp said: “Trachoma has already been eliminated in several countries, such as Ghana. This achievement means millions of people no longer live with the pain, suffering and blindness it can cause. However, millions more people are still at risk of the disease so more work is needed.

“We want to raise awareness of this horrific disease and encourage the global community to come together and end it. We’re incredibly grateful to the public for the support of this appeal, and of course to UK aid for doubling those donations.”

The funds from the spring 2019 UK Aid Match scheme will be used to support eye health projects in Tanzania.