Updated June 2024

We have been working alongside communities in Zambia since 2001 and have been recognized by the Ministry of Health as a key partner in creating access to affordable eye health care across the country.

2023 Highlights

In 2023 in Zambia, in partnership with the respective district health departments, we established two new vision centres, at Kanyama General Hospital in Lusaka Province and Kapiri Mposhi Urban Health Clinic in the Central Province, benefiting over 400,000 people.

To create demand for eye health services at these facilities, we launched outreach and education activities in surrounding communities. At the same time, to ensure our partners could meet the increased demand, we made improvements to the operation theatre of Kanyama General Hospital. We’re grateful to the OneSight Essilor Luxottica Foundation for setting up optical shops at the aforementioned vision centres, as well as at Maamba General Hospital in the Southern Province. Patients now have better access to eye exams and custom eyeglasses all under the same roof. We also continued to support Lusaka Eye Hospital as it transitioned its entire medical records system from a manual one to a more efficient, electronic one.

In the Central Province, we are bringing clean water to communities, so people can wash their hands and faces to prevent the spread of blinding trachoma. After rehabilitating 120 dysfunctional water boreholes the previous year, in 2023 we focused on building the capacities of the water committees that had been revived. These committees, made up of local volunteers, maintain the boreholes and provide hygiene and sanitation education to their fellow neighbours. We rehabilitated 25 more boreholes and trained an additional 20 pump minders – including our second cohort of women – on how to repair the boreholes in their areas.

Almost all our project areas were affected by the cholera outbreak that began in Zambia in fall 2023. We ensured our teams took the necessary precautions and suspended some of our community activities, with plans to relaunch them as soon as it is safe to do so. In 2024, we plan to intensify our outreach and education activities across our project areas and ultimately declare communities as avoidable blindness-free.

Clean water and avoidable blindness 

We drill and rehabilitate boreholes in Zambian communities where trachoma is prevalent. Lack of access to fresh water and inadequate hygiene often contributes to the spread of trachoma and other infectious diseases.  

Access to clean water allows people to wash their hands, faces and clothing and prevent the spread of infection.  

In recent years, we’ve shifted our focus from drilling new water boreholes to rehabilitating existing, defunct boreholes. The cost savings from this approach allow us to reach more communities. Partnership with local communities and governments empowers communities to test water quality and maintain their borehole. 

10,829

People screened through door-to-door surveys

40,481

Eye exams

913

Sight-saving surgeries

2,429

Pairs of eyeglasses dispensed

3,555

Students screened through school eye health programs

25

Boreholes rehabilitated

20

Area Pump Minders trained to maintain and repair boreholes

16,004

People screened through door-to-door surveys

20,378

Eye exams

646

Sight-saving surgeries

1,758

Pairs of eyeglasses dispensed

14,489

Students screened through school eye health programs

120

Boreholes rehabilitated

122

Area Pump Minders trained to maintain and repair boreholes

Learn more about our work in Zambia in 2022.

The role of eye care in preventing poverty

Clean water, clear vision: The link between water and eye health

Global community in action