Cure Blindness Project

More than 1 billion people worldwide are living with avoidable vision impairment—but together, we’re changing that.⁠ ⁠ Our 2025 Impact Report captures what has been our most impactful year yet in the fight to eliminate avoidable blindness.⁠ ⁠ In 2025, with the support of our partners and donors, Cure Blindness Project:⁠ ⁠ 👁️ Screened and treated more than 2.25 million people across 26 countries⁠ ✨ Delivered over 315,000 sight-restoring surgeries—curing the equivalent of more than 1% of global cataract blindness for the second year in a row⁠ ⁠ Beyond the numbers, 2025 was about strengthening health systems, expanding access to high-quality care, and building sustainable solutions that will last for generations.⁠ ⁠ Together, we’re not just restoring sight—we’re transforming lives, families, and entire communities. A world without avoidable blindness is within reach.⁠ ⁠ 📄 Explore the full 2025 Impact Report at the link in our bio.

Cure Blindness Project was honored to host a hands-on vitreoretinal surgery training at Menelik Hospital in Ethiopia.⁠ ⁠ We sincerely appreciate Dr. Dean Eliott for leading this training and for his continued commitment to strengthening vitreoretinal surgical capacity here in sub-Saharan Africa.⁠ ⁠ Senior ophthalmologists Dr. Yometeku and Dr. Demoze Delelegn attended, reinforcing local leadership and long-term sustainability in advanced retinal care.⁠ ⁠ Cure Blindness Project remains committed to building local expertise and improving patient outcomes in Ethiopia. Sponsoring specialized training is a key part of strengthening local eye care systems. 💪 🏥 🌍

The true highlight of every outreach? Witnessing the pure joy on the faces of those seeing clearly again after so long. 💫✨ Celebrate this beautiful moment with us—watch the dancing, hear the singing, and feel the happiness! 🎶💃 #RestoringSight #ChangingLives #CommunityJoy 📽️ Video Credit Pinamang Poku-hage

Mrs. Ige Hakimi, a 50-year-old housewife and farmer from Giashi Town in Jega Local Government Area of Kebbi State, Nigeria, began experiencing visual disturbances about a year before seeking help. Her symptoms included blurry vision and increased sensitivity to light, which she initially attributed to general fatigue. Due to limited financial resources, she did not pursue medical attention, and her vision continued to deteriorate—eventually affecting her ability to manage household tasks and work on the farm.⁠ ⁠ In early 2025, she learned from fellow villagers about @Hafsat Eye Centre, a facility offering free eye care services. Motivated by her worsening condition, she visited the hospital.⁠ ⁠ At Hafsat Eye Centre, Mrs. Hakimi underwent a comprehensive eye examination by an ophthalmologist and was diagnosed with a cataract in her left eye. After receiving counseling on treatment options and undergoing a medical fitness evaluation, she was declared fit for surgery.⁠ ⁠ Her treatment was made possible through The Cataract Foundation’s Cataract Backlog-Free Initiative, generously supported by Cure Blindness Project.⁠ ⁠ Following her surgery, she received detailed counseling on post-operative care, including hygiene, medication use, and activity restrictions. She followed all medical advice diligently throughout her recovery.⁠ ⁠ At her 30-day follow-up, her vision had improved significantly—from Perception of Light (PL) to 6/9 in the operated eye. Filled with gratitude, she described Hafsat Eye Centre as a “special grace of God”, enabling her to see clearly again and return to her daily life with renewed confidence.⁠ ⁠ "I am truly grateful for this care. May God bless the organizations for helping people like me to see again."⁠ ⁠ Mrs. Hakimi’s story highlights the transformative power of accessible eye care and the impact of collaborative efforts to eliminate avoidable blindness in underserved communities across Nigeria.

Cure Blindness Project helps with the historic milestone of setting up the first eye bank in West Africa’s Mali in 2023.⁠ ⁠ “For every cornea available for transplant, there are 70 people in need,” says Josie Noah, Chief Program Officer for Cure Blindness Project.⁠ ⁠ Cure Blindness Project provides strategic and operational consulting to ensure scalability, sustainability and quality for eye bank infrastructure. The team also supports advocacy, eye bank development and clinical training.

Community-based eye care isn’t just health—it’s hope.⁠ ⁠ By bringing treatment closer to home, we prevent blindness *and* open doors to education, work, and brighter futures.⁠ ⁠ Together, we can build a world where no one loses sight to preventable causes.⁠ ⁠ #EndBlindness #SocialImpact

More lives changed than ever before. ⁠ ⁠ Thanks to your generosity and the extraordinary commitment of an anonymous donor, we cured the equivalent of more than 1% of global cataract blindness for the second consecutive year — transforming lives, families, and communities together. ⁠ ⁠ • 2.25+ million patients screened and treated across 26 countries ⁠ ⁠ • 315,000+ sight-restoring surgeries ⁠ ⁠ • Thousands of local eye care professionals trained ⁠ ⁠ • $7+ million in ophthalmic equipment and consumables donated⁠ ⁠ See more in our 2025 Impact Report - LINK IN BIO

📣 Update from Our Board Chairman and CEO⁠ ⁠ Thanks to our donors like you, 2025 became the most impactful year in the history of Cure Blindness Project. Let that sink in. ⁠ ⁠ In the previous twelve months, we screened and treated more than 2.25 million patients across 26 countries, delivered over 315,000 sight-restoring surgeries—curing the equivalent of over 1% of global cataract blindness for the second consecutive year. We trained thousands of eye care professionals who will continue restoring vision in their communities for years to come and provided more than $7 million in ophthalmic equipment and consumables, strengthening the capacity of eye care systems where the need is greatest. ⁠ ⁠ None of this would have been possible without you—and without the extraordinary generosity of an anonymous donor whose commitment to ending avoidable blindness has transformed what we are able to achieve together. ⁠ ⁠ But we know there’s still so much work to be done. We’re ready. And with your support, we’ll do it. ⁠ ⁠ Generosity and compassion are restoring sight, expanding opportunity, and strengthening health systems around the world. Every patient screened, every surgery performed, and every clinician trained is part of a larger story — one in which your support is helping build a future where avoidable blindness no longer limits lives. Thank you for making this extraordinary year possible.⁠ ⁠ Dr. Matthew Oliva, Board Chairman, Cure Blindness Project @matt.s.oliva ⁠ ⁠ K-T Overbey, CEO, Cure Blindness Project @kt_overbey_

They say the face of perseverance tells a story.⁠ ⁠ For years, I have lived in the dark.⁠ Not just without sight—but without the small, everyday moments I once knew. The faces of my children. The path outside my home. The independence I carried with quiet pride.⁠ ⁠ I learned to adapt. To listen more closely. To move more carefully. To accept what I thought would never change.⁠ ⁠ But now, I am hearing something I never expected—⁠ that my blindness might not be permanent.⁠ That there is a surgery.⁠ That someone is coming.⁠ ⁠ Hope is a fragile thing when you’ve lived without it for so long.⁠ But this… this feels different.⁠ ⁠ If it’s true, it means I could see again.⁠ It means I could reclaim the life I thought I had lost.⁠ ⁠ This is what perseverance looks like.⁠ Not just enduring the darkness—but holding on, even when light feels impossible.⁠ ⁠ And maybe—just maybe—the light is closer than I ever imagined.⁠ ⁠ [This creative retelling imagines what life might be like for a patient before receiving free sight-restoring cataract surgery through Cure Blindness Project.]⁠ ⁠ 📍Nepal

We recently marked an important milestone as Shaifali Sharma, Country Director, India and Director, Primary Care, completed the India Lift-Off with @WomenLift Health - a program focused on advancing women’s leadership and strengthening health systems through more equitable representation.⁠ ⁠ Over the past year, this journey has gone beyond leadership training. It has been a process of reflection, resilience, and growth; shaping perspectives, strengthening purpose, and influencing how leadership shows up in everyday decisions and team dynamics.⁠ ⁠ One shift that stands out is the move from having to lead with all the answers, to creating space for more voices, perspectives, and shared ownership. The kind of shift that is subtle, but deeply consequential in how teams function and decisions are made.⁠ ⁠ What makes this experience significant is not just the fellowship, but the process behind it, engaging deeply with leadership, learning alongside a diverse cohort of women across contexts, and building a peer network that extends well beyond the program.⁠ ⁠ As Shaifali steps forward as a Global Fellow, she carries with her not just new skills, but a renewed commitment to lead with clarity, compassion, and courage.⁠ ⁠ At Cure Blindness Project, we see leadership like this as critical, not only for individual growth, but for strengthening the systems, teams, and communities we serve.⁠ ⁠ #WomenInLeadership #WomenLiftHealth #LeadershipJourney #GlobalHealth

📸 Our co-founder Dr. Geoff Tabin with a Ghanaian patient after her surgery, February 2025. ⁠ ⁠ Founded in 1995 as the Himalayan Cataract Project, Cure Blindness Project is a global nonprofit organization driven to help people retain or regain their sight. What began in the mountains of Nepal has grown today to millions of surgeries, screenings and treatments performed in dozens of countries—and we won’t stop until everyone in the world with avoidable blindness can see.

“There is no waiting list for children’s surgery,” says Dr. Kumale Tolesa Daba, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Jimma University. Her words are not just a statement—they are a promise she lives by. Trained in 2017 through Cure Blindness Project’s Sub-specialty Pediatric Fellowship Program in Nepal, Dr. Kumale is now the only pediatric eye surgeon in this region of Ethiopia, and her impact is nothing short of life-changing. Among the many children whose lives she has touched is Abdulkerim Mudin, a 9-year-old boy who had been bilaterally blind for two years. He traveled from Socoru near Jimma, carried by the hope of a family longing to see their son regain his childhood. “I am very happy,” his father said with overflowing joy. “He is my eldest child. I have two kids, and seeing him like this again is a blessing.” Another heart touching story is that of Abdulkerim Kalid Mohamed, a 3-year-old boy from Buno Bedele—far from Jimma city. He was brought by his grandfather, Siraj Mohamed, because his parents had traveled to Sudan for work and entrusted the child to him completely. “He is yours now,” the boy’s father told Siraj. Siraj loved the child deeply but carried constant worry— “He couldn’t play outside. He always fell. I was afraid for him every day.” When Abdulkerim arrived at Jimma Hospital, Dr. Kumale performed surgery on one eye. But she made a bold, compassionate decision: she operated on the second eye immediately. “If I send him home after doing just one eye, he might never come back for the other,” she said. “So I did both—and I am happy with the result.” The transformation was miraculous. The once frightened, stumbling child could now see the world he had never fully known. Siraj, overwhelmed with emotion, said, “Now I am very happy. Truly happy.” These stories are just a glimpse of what Dr. Kumale’s dedication brings to families across the region. Her work restores sight, hope, and childhood itself. She is not only a doctor—she is a lifeline for the children who come to her, often from far and difficult places. We are all incredibly proud of her. 📷️ Pictured, Abdulkerim Kalid Mohamed, a 3 year old boy with his grandfather