Sightsavers

Sightsavers is an international nongovernmental organization headquartered in Haywards Heath, England, dedicated to preventing and treating avoidable blindness and advancing equality for people with visual impairments and other disabilities in developing countries. It was founded in 1950 by the blind activist Sir John Wilson as the British Empire Society for the Blind, was renamed the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind in 1957, and adopted its present name in 1987 following a Blue Peter television fundraising appeal. Alongside its founding work in eye care, screening, and disability-inclusive employment training, Sightsavers has become a major implementer of neglected tropical disease elimination programs, having delivered more than one billion treatments against these diseases by December 2017. Its Accelerate Trachoma Elimination program had, as of November 2025, contributed to trachoma being eliminated as a public health problem in eight countries: Ghana, the Gambia, Malawi, Benin, Mali, Pakistan, Senegal, and Egypt.