This booklet provides information on the current status of child blindness around the world and the work of essential U.S. government humanitarian and development assistance programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in addressing this serious problem.
USAID, in partnership with 25 U.S. and internationally based nongovernmental organizations, is working with the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations to eradicate preventable and treatable causes of childhood blindness.
Current estimates indicate there are 19 million children under 15 years old who are visually impaired, 1.4 million of whom are irreversibly blind, and 500,000 children become blind every year. Half of children who become blind die within one year, and those children who survive live an average of 40 years.