A Partnership Creating Long-Term Solutions to Prevent Blindness
Creating meaningful, lasting change by building sustainable, local solutions to prevent avoidable blindness.
The partnership between Grieg Foundation and Right To Sight was established in 2011, the same year Right To Sight was founded by Norwegian ophthalmologist Dr. Trine Jacobsen. From the beginning, the partnership has been guided by a shared vision: to create meaningful, lasting change by building sustainable, local solutions to prevent avoidable blindness.
At the heart of Right To Sight’s work is the “Teach to Reach” model—a strategy focused on empowering local eye health professionals, strengthening health systems, and ensuring that expertise remains in the communities where it’s needed most. Rather than providing short-term aid, the goal has always been to build capacity that lasts.
Giving nearly 80,000 people vision screening
With early support from Grieg Foundation, Right To Sight established Kenya’s first dedicated cataract surgery training centre at Kisii Eye Hospital, training 29 ophthalmologists within just five years. Building on this foundation, Right To Sight expanded to Kwale Eye Centre near Mombasa, focusing on the training of Ophthalmic Clinical Officers (OCOs)—a critical mid-level workforce introduced in Kenya to address the shortage of eye doctors. To date, nearly 100 OCOs have been trained to perform sight-restoring surgeries, significantly expanding surgical capacity across the country.
The results are far reaching. Nearly 80,000 people have received vision screening through mobile outreach clinics, with around 75% receiving treatment for conditions ranging from spectacle prescriptions to sight-restoring cataract surgery. More than 8,000 cataract operations have been performed—many as part of training programmes where patients regain their sight while local professionals gain surgical experience.
Crucially, the impact does not stop with those trained directly. Thanks to the “Teach to Reach” model, many of these professionals now train others, creating a multiplier effect that expands access to quality eye care across Kenya and neighbouring countries.
The true impact of this partnership lies not only in the thousands who have regained their sight, but in the growing number of trained eye health professionals who are continuing this work independently—helping build lasting, local solutions to eye care challenges.
Over the years, Grieg Foundation’s support has allowed Right To Sight to continually adapt and grow, introducing new techniques and responding to emerging needs. A recent milestone was the introduction of the Bag-in-the-Lens (BIL) technique for childhood cataracts—a cutting-edge surgical method that reduces the risk of long-term complications like glaucoma and secondary cataracts. In 2024, Kwale Eye Centre became the first hospital in Africa to perform BIL surgery, offering children with cataract the chance to regain sight and reach their full potential—in school, at home, and in their communities.
Looking ahead, Right To Sight is scaling up its focus on children’s eye health, establishing specialist centres, engaging global eye health experts, and expanding training programmes to India, where affordable Bag-in-the-Lens implants are now being developed for low-resource settings.
Over the past 13 years, Grieg Foundation has contributed NOK 7.25 million to Right To Sight’s mission. This partnership has been essential in making long-term, meaningful change possible—ensuring that more children and adults, regardless of background or income, have access to the care they need to live fuller, healthier lives with restored sight.
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