Sight is key to the way many of us experience the world, learn and remember. J&J has a bold ambition, Vision Made Possible. In 2023, we helped improve and preserve the sight of more than 40 million people worldwide through our advanced technologies and eye health solutions (see section: MedTech innovation).
Enhancing access to eye care
In communities with the greatest need, we collaborate to expand access to quality eye care for all. According to the WHO, approximately 90% of individuals with visual impairments live in low-income settings,10 where access to eye care is limited. There is an urgent need to address disparity in eye care access and implement effective strategies to prevent and treat blindness globally.
Our goal is to make vision possible for millions of people around the world. Eye health remains one of the most underserved segments in healthcare today. By coming together with our community partners, we strive to do even more for patients, professionals and all of humanity, advancing eye care and access now and into the future.”
Together with partners, we continued to enhance our impact in 2023 to help children and adults more fully experience life, freeing them from needless blindness.
Sight For Kids (SFK)
Founded by J&J and the Lions Clubs International Foundation in 2002, J&J’s ongoing funding helps SFK provide comprehensive eye health services to more than 3 million children annually in low-income schools in several countries, as well as training teachers to deliver eye health education and perform basic eye tests and screenings. In 2023, SFK delivered almost 2.5 million eye screenings for children, issued spectacles for more than half a million children, and trained 220,000 teachers and volunteers. Since 2002, 48.6 million children have benefited from eye screenings.
HCP Cure Blindness
J&J supports HCP Cure Blindness to help eliminate preventable and curable blindness in under-resourced communities in 25 countries. Our support advances training of eye care professionals, eye exams and sight-restoring surgeries.
See International
Building on our longstanding partnership, in 2023, J&J funded five missions to the Philippines, led by See International, bringing medical volunteers to work alongside local doctors to offer cataract surgeries and eye care services. Our funding supported all medical equipment supplies to deliver a total of 3,632 sight-restoring eye surgeries at no cost to the patients in the Philippines.
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)
J&J joined the global eye health body as a member organization. Working together, we will focus on advocating for better eye health around the world.
When I was in the Philippines, we performed over 1,000 surgeries on people blinded by cataracts over the course of a week or two and watched, one by one, as their lives suddenly changed and their families became whole again.”
10 WHO, “Increasing eye care interventions to address vision impairment,” https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/increasing-eye-care-interventions-to-address-vision-impairment#:~:text=Overview,%2Dincome%20countries%20(LMICs), accessed March 2024.
