African Eye Institute

Giving the gift of sight to South Africa’s children “The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela The African Eye Institute (AEI), established in 2000, is a non-profit organisation whose team of dedicated staff work to reduce avoidable blindness and vision impairment caused by refractive errors and other eye deficiencies. One of the many challenges of South Africa’s impoverished families is access to quality healthcare. Right now, thousands of children are struggling unnecessarily at school, home, and in social settings because of vision impairment – a problem that can in many cases be immediately rectified with a pair of spectacles. One of the most common vision impairments is myopia, also known as short-sightedness. People who suffer from this condition can’t see clearly at a distance but can see objects up close. It usually starts in childhood and gets progressively worse until the child stops growing. Myopia, when untreated, ...