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 In 2001, LCIF and the World Health Organization began collaborating to address childhood blindness throughout the world. Through a partnership on the “Project for Elimination of Avoidable Childhood Blindness,” 30 need-based Lions eye care centers in countries all over the globe have been established, aimed especially at delivering preventative, therapeutic, and rehabilitative eye care services for 71 million children.
To help fund this project, LCIF distributed a grant totaling US$3.75 million between the six WHO regions where the eye centers are located. During recent evaluations, each country showed that it was significantly closer to achieving the goal of fighting avoidable blindness.
Examples of some of the accomplishments are as follows:
- Pediatric eye care teams have been trained in all six evaluated countries.
- A low vision care room at the project hospital in Lithuania was opened in 2006.
- A program was developed and implemented for identifying and treating low vision children in schools for the blind in Indonesia
- 246 school teachers were trained in vision screening in Hanoi, Vietnam
- Nurses underwent training for pediatric ophthalmologic surgery in Egypt
Over the years that the project has been in place, Lions have been an active part of the planning process, attending meetings, evaluations, and other planning activities. Also, Lions were present at the Hong Kong Society for the Blind low vision training inauguration. Since the very beginnings of the project, the help of local Lions was part of the basic foundation of support that LCIF has been able to provide.
Here is a complete list of the project eye care centers:
- Ethiopia
- Ghana
 Kenya- Nigeria
- Mali
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Romania
- Ukraine
- Lithuania
- Moldova
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Cuba
- Ecuador
- Bangladesh
- Indonesia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- Sri Lanka
- Egypt
- Islamic Republic of Iran
- Morocco
- Pakistan
- Sudan
- Cambodia
- China
- Malaysia
- Philippines
- Vietnam
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