Sustainable Development

An international eye care facility in Nepal

The International Division of Ophthalmology has adopted the age-old adage of “It's better to teach a man to fish then to give him a fish.” To that end, we dedicate ourselves to helping facilitate the development of sustainable infrastructure within the countries we partner with as a means of empowering their own advances and providing additional tools that will expand their ability to care for the needs of their and the surrounding communities.

It is the department’s belief that supporting sustainable infrastructure will affect many more lives over the long run than is possible through short-term initiatives.

Supported infrastructure development will include:

• Training eye care workers in the prevention and treatment of eye diseases prevalent in their region and ensuring that these skills are effectively put into practice.
• Provide the tools and resources lacking at partnered eye care institutions to help strengthen their ability to provide urgently needed eye care services.
• Introduce, where applicable, tiered health care financing systems to better ensure that all individuals living within the communities in which we work will have access to sight-saving surgery regardless of their ability to pay.
• Helping generate public awareness that some forms of blindness can be prevented and treated.