Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Combat Blindness Foundation (CBF) : Turning darkness into light all across the world

(Madison, Wisconsin) -- Combat Blindness Foundation (CBF) has screened more than 650,000 blind or sight-impaired patients, funded more than 162,000 free cataract surgeries on four continents -- including its highest one-year total ever of 16,512 in 2010 -- and helped thousands of children suffering from Vitamin A deficiency. 

Since its founding in 1984, the Madison-based Combat Blindness Foundation (CBF) has committed its resources to creating sustainable solutions to the rampant blindness worldwide through effective disease control, medical facility development and medical personnel training.

All of this would not have been possible, had it not been for one man’s walk through a crowded waiting room at an Indian clinic. That man is CBF’s founder, Dr. Suresh Chandra, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health "For years,” Chandra recalls, “I traveled to India, Thailand, Indonesia and Kenya to lecture and demonstrate technologically-advanced retina and vitreous surgery at various medical institutions. On one of these trips, after I had spent a long day operating on a woman with retinal damage, I marveled at how many other patients in that particular clinic waiting room had their sight issues resolved by my associates while I was doing one single surgical procedure. It was then that I realized that high-tech retinal surgery was not the answer to the overwhelming blindness that existed around the world.”

Blindness in developing countries, Chandra discovered that day, is primarily caused by cataracts. “Medical intervention at that time,” he points out, “cost just $10 per patient. Even today, the cost is just $20 per patient. I was astounded! The idea that we could give sight to an individual so quickly and so inexpensively excited me, and soon thereafter compelled me to start the Combat Blindness Foundation.”

In a world of increasing need, CBF continues to develop strategic global partnerships from its office on Madison’s west side. It works with indigenous medical facilities, and is a part of Vision 2020: The Right to Sight, a global joint initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). In more recent years, the organization has helped fund free community eye care clinics in Madison through a partnership with UW Health and the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, as well as Styleyes Optical.

“Our work is possible because of the generosity of many local friends, volunteers, companies and foundations,” Chandra concludes. “Madison is, indeed, turning darkness into light all across the world.”

 

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