SightLife’s 2020-2021 Impact Report
Together, we can renew hope and healing worldwide.
In reflecting on the past year, there’s no denying the challenges and hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to impact our work and the communities we serve every day. Such challenges also serve as a reminder that health inequities persist worldwide, and the pandemic will not end for anyone until it is over for everyone.
The same is true for corneal blindness, which is why SightLife in collaboration with our dedicated partners take a health systems strengthening approach to ensuring no one waits for the corneal care they need to thrive in the U.S. and internationally.
SightLife’s 2020-2021 Impact Report summarizes our accomplishments for 2020 and what’s on the horizon in 2021. These hard-fought wins during the pandemic would not have been possible without the camaraderie and support we receive every day from our broader community—including YOU.
Highlights include:
- Rising to the challenge. By the end of 2020, after a temporary national suspension of elective surgeries, including corneal transplants, our U.S. eye bank had advanced nearly 200,000 high-stakes calls in service to donation, engaged 8,500 donor families in frontline bereavement care, and recovered more than 11,300 corneas for sight-restoring surgery. We also helped our partners in Washington state break records by coordinating musculoskeletal and cardiovascular tissue recoveries that will serve the immediate and future transplant needs of 160,000 Americans.
- Adapting for impact. SightLife’s innovative blend of in-person and distance learning initiatives catapulted our prevention and clinical training efforts to new heights, helping to reach patients, community health workers, clinicians, allied ophthalmic personnel, and eye banking specialists in more than 120 countries.
- Driving sustainability. On the heels of India adopting National Standards in Eye Banking, our capacity building work with King George’s Medical University Uttar Pradesh Community Eye Bank has been so successful, they will soon transfer into an independently operating eye bank.
- Gaining new ground. In China, we continued to bolster awareness of cornea donation among potential donor families and hospital administrators, helping to strengthen a growing system of sight restoration in the country.
Thank you for your continued partnership on our journey. We are truly BETTER TOGETHER and could not be more grateful for your support as we work to eliminate corneal blindness worldwide – helping even MORE children to stay in school and even MORE adults to sustain a livelihood that provides for themselves and those they love, even during the pandemic.
Support our Better Together campaign TODAY and help SightLife reach the 12.7 million people suffering from corneal blindness worldwide – plus the countless donor families whose lives are transformed through the generous, selfless act of cornea donation.