Ghana

At Watborg Eye Hospital, an eye chart is a familiar sight. But what if there was no optometrist to test your eyes? We want to ensure that everyone has this simple but critical service.
At Watborg Eye Hospital, an eye chart is a familiar sight. But what if there was no optometrist to test your eyes? We want to ensure that everyone has this simple but critical service.

Ghana in West Africa is a beautiful country of plains and low plateaus covered in savannah and rainforests. Its beauty, like so many sub-Saharan countries, is marred somewhat by the reality of its living conditions. Of its 28.5 million people, more than 200,000 are blind, most from avoidable causes. A significant percentage of its population struggle to meet their basic needs of food, shelter and clothing.

We choose to work in Ghana because the need is great and because of the leadership of one of Africa’s leading ophthalmologists, Dr. Boateng Wiafe, who serves as our Director of Quality and Advocacy.

In 2006 with our support, Dr. Wiafe founded Watborg Eye Services, a private hospital specializing in eye services in Ghana’s Central Region. In 2012, we opened a new Watborg facility thanks to our dedicated donors. Watborg serves about one million residents in the surrounding area, and more than 7,200 people have visited Watborg for consultation services, 500 people have received new, custom-fitted eyeglasses and 711 sight-restoring surgeries have been performed.

Operation Eyesight works at strengthening the eye care systems in all 10 regions in Ghana. With our ongoing partnership with Standard Chartered Bank’s Seeing Is Believing program, and past support from the Government of Canada, Watborg Eye Services serves as a base and referral centre to provide technical and financial support to 35 district hospitals.

In 2016, our partners

  • Examined more than 1 million people
  • Performed more than 5,000 cataract surgeries, and over 4,500 other sight-restoring surgeries
  • Helped us complete a National Blindness and Visual Impairment Study that included nearly 4,600 survey participants

With the help of our generous donors, we’re saving sight and restoring vision in Ghana. Please help us give more people the gift of sight!