From the Eyes of the World foundation we would like to express our deepest gratitude to CBM Global for these years of commitment to the eye health of Bolivians. With its technical, financial, human and profoundly transformative support.

Since 2015, CBM Global has been an essential partner in advancing our eye health programmes in Bolivia. Its contribution, which represented nearly 35% of the funding for this project, made it possible to expand the scope and quality of our actions. CBM Global trusted and joined, from the beginning, in the mission of Eyes of the world: to help people without resources and at risk of exclusion to stop being blind from preventable causes and improve their eye health.

Two girls and a boy with glasses in front of the CBMGlobal and Eyes of the world displays.

During these almost 11 years, in addition to sharing an alliance, we travelled together a path of hope, inclusion and social justice. Thanks to this mutual trust, we were able to bring quality eye care to thousands of people in vulnerable situations, with or without disabilities, especially in rural and underserved areas of Oruro, Tarija, Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and La Paz.

CBM Global was a great partner on the road, believing in the Bolivian public system, in the potential of local actors and in a shared vision of a fairer world, where sight is not a privilege, but a right. Sharing our goal of developing stronger, more inclusive and sustainable health systems.

Together we develop concrete actions with lasting impact: inter-institutional coordination, provision of eyeglasses and ophthalmological equipment, training of professionals, training of community promoters and awareness campaigns with a focus on gender and respect for the environment. Some examples that summarise the strength of this collaboration:

  • The formation of the National Committee for Eye Health and the Fight against Blindness.
  • The development of the Diploma in Cataract Surgery.
  • Implementation of the WetLab at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Oruro.
  • The training of 6,628 teachers in visual acuity testing and nearly 4,000 primary health professionals in basic ophthalmology.
  • The training of 2,413 community eye health promoters.
  • The provision of ophthalmology clinics and operating rooms in La Paz, Oruro, Tarija and Santa Cruz, including a mobile operating room that now travels around the country together with the Ministry of Health, which has resulted in more than 6,395 cataract surgeries and 127,643 ophthalmology consultations.
  • Planning actions to carry out the RAAB study.

Group of people at the WetLab in Oruro

The impact of this work transcends numbers and projects: it is reflected in every girl who can read again, in every elderly person who recovers their sight, in every professional who is trained to improve care in Bolivia’s public system.

The doors of our projects will always be open to those who, like CBM Global, decide to look beyond, with vision, with priority attention to the most vulnerable populations and a sense of social justice.

Thank you, CBM Global, for walking by our side, and for leaving an indelible mark on the history of eye health in Bolivia.