World Sight Day

Today, on World Sight Day, Mercy Ships honours our Eye Care Team and those courageous patients who have received eye surgeries onboard our state-of-the-art hospital ship.

Approximately eighty percent of all visual impairment can be prevented or cured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In 2011, Mercy Ships eye surgeons gave the gift of sight to over 1,300 individuals in Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in the world.

The Mercy Vision Eye Care Team also performed more than 7,500 eye evaluations and distributed 2,400 pairs of reading glasses.

With approximately 90% of all visually impaired people living in developing nations, the medical services provided by Mercy Ships in West Africa are focused on the areas of greatest need.

Sidiatu is one of many young children who are brought to Mercy Ships eye screenings for medical assistance. Sidiatu’s mother, Fatmata, had taken her sixteen-month-old daughter, who suffered from congenital cataracts, to two hospitals in Freetown – with no success in finding treatment. After surgery, Fatmata was moved to tears when she saw her daughter take her very first look at the world.

An estimated 19 million children in the world – children like Sidiatu – are visually
impaired. Globally, cataracts remain the leading cause of blindness in middle-income and low-income countries.

Mercy Ships holds screenings of potential eye patients each week in Freetown, Sierra Leone, while the ship is in port. The Eye Care Team works daily to relieve the suffering of West Africans who are battling poor vision and blindness.

Their efforts are rewarded when they see patients celebrate their successful surgeries in a ceremony called Celebration of Sight.

There, Fatmata expressed her appreciation for Mercy Ships. “I am very, very happy. Mercy Ships is a very good place. They take care and encourage