Few years ago I had the privilege to experience first hand what it means for someone to receive the gift of vision. I was filming an aid organisation provide some basic eye operations in rural Kenya. The old woman under the microscope lost her vision 11 years ago to cataracts. For eleven years she lived in darkness, relying on other people for her to get by. Twenty four hours under the care of the western doctors and her whole life changed. She could now for the first time see the faces of her grandchildren. The operation is not unique and not rare, but the $1,500 price tag is far too much for many third world country families to undertake.
So charities have been set up to combat eye diseases in the third world. One such charity is Sight Savers (www.sightsavers.org). Sight Savers is a UK based charity in operation for more than 50 years and has provided eye care to thousands of people around the world.
There are 45 million blind people in the world of which 40 million (80%) of these people, their blindness is totally preventable, provided that they have the opportunity, the education and the funds to do so. Sight Savers not only provides medical care and surgical training camps but they also support rehabilitation programs for those who have lost their sight.
Sight Savers relies completely on donations made by individuals and corporations. On the website there is a guideline for what money achieves. From £3 (around $5) a month six villagers will be protected from river blindness and £20 (around $28) a month helps run an outreach clinic, bringing urgent eye-care to rural villages. A very small price to pay for the gift of vision.
The website is so rich in context that you can be assured to know where your donations will go and what the will achieve. Also information is provided for the various blindness diseases that are out there threatening humanity.
Their website is a delight to browse. Combining design, practicality and context all together is not an easy task. The website has integrated flash animation with standard html code to produce a very interesting and informative website. My favorite page is the history page where animation and context has been used brilliantly. Using Microsoft Internet Explorer is the best browser to use to navigate the website. Some of the features are not visible on Netscape Navigator.
To help combat blindness please go to the Sight Savers website and make a difference.
Review By David Hands
