LCIF envisions a future where no one in the world has to suffer from avoidable vision loss. To work toward that vision, our sight initiatives are developed and continuously reviewed by experts, key partners, LCIF’s leadership and staff. All of our sight grant programs incorporate a comprehensive understanding of the vision issues they are addressing, and they have clear objectives and goals that are updated as the needs change. It is only through informed, targeted and carefully-planned strategies that we can win our fight against the most devastating major eye diseases affecting millions.

Lions can lead the fight by developing projects and applying for SightFirst grants focused on these 10 key areas:

• Cataract—the world’s leading cause of visual impairment.
• Childhood Blindness—an estimated 1.4 million children worldwide are blind.
• Diabetic Retinopathy—nearly half of the 220 million people with diabetes will develop some degree of vision loss during their lifetime.
• Education and Rehabilitation—just one out of 10 of the world’s people who are blind have access to education or rehabilitation services.
• Eye Health Education—quality education is needed to help millions of people who do not realize they have a condition that needs treatment or do not know how to seek treatment.
• Low Vision—nearly 246 million people in the world have low vision, and services are accessed by just 5 to 10 percent.
• Research—high quality research has the potential to improve our programs and benefit blindness prevention efforts worldwide.
• River Blindness—close to 37 million people are infected with river blindness, with another 100 million people in Africa and Latin America at risk for the disease.
• Trachoma—a disease that is the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide and has caused irreversible blindness in approximately 8 million people.
• Uncorrected Refractive Error—easily correctable disorders are responsible for 43 percent of global vision impairment, with half of all cases going undetected and untreated.