Lions Club International established the SightFirst program in 1990 as “an aggressive global blindness prevention initiative.”
· Grants approved as of July 31, 2002: US$136.2 million
· Projects approved: 572
· Total countries: 78
· Cataract surgeries done: 3,261,014
· Treatments for river blindness: 36,152,605
· Eye hospitals built or expanded: 136
· Eye centers given equipment upgrades: 273
· Training facilities expanded: 6
· Ophthalmologists, ophthalmic nurses and allied health workers trained: 12,798
· Village health workers trained for primary eye care services or disease control: 53,527
· A SightFirst grant of $1,661,702 (approved May 2001) allowed an 80-bed eye center to be added to the existing eye department at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malaw, Africa. “More than 12,000 people will receive sight-saving cataract surgeries.”
