Helen Keller Intl

10/13/2026

What if one home visit could protect a family from two causes of blindness? 🤔

Athuman Tawakal leads our eye health work in Tanzania, where our teams train case finders to screen for both trachoma and cataracts in a single household visit. 👀
"Combining the screenings is a cost-effective way to help more people," he says. It has built community trust and brought more patients forward – our outreach camps now provide more than 700 cataract surgeries in just six days. 🏥

Read the interview: https://vist.ly/5n6xy

Cure Blindness Project

10/12/2026

What causes avoidable blindness?

👓 Uncorrected refractive error – often solved with a simple pair of glasses
👁️ Cataracts – treated with a quick, safe surgery
🦠 Trachoma – the world's leading infectious cause of blindness
💊 Vitamin A deficiency – the leading cause of preventable blindness in children

We tackle all four, because 90% of vision loss can be prevented or treated. 💜

10/09/2026

Did you know? 🤔

Helen Keller co-founded our organization in 1915 to support soldiers blinded in World War I. 🎖️

More than 110 years later, we're still carrying her mission forward – helping millions of people see clearly and live healthier lives. 💜🤍

10/08/2026

Today is 👀 – and this year, it's all about the power of people's stories.

For nearly two years, Desmond lived in darkness. The 59-year-old civil engineer from Tannihun, Sierra Leone, had spent close to four decades supervising construction work. Then an injury at a construction site led to cataracts, and he gradually lost sight in both eyes. "I felt my life had ended," he recalls. 🚧

In late 2025, eye care workers screened Desmond during outreach in his community and referred him for free cataract surgery at Moyamba Government Hospital. 🏥

The morning after his second surgery, the first face he recognized was his neighbor's son. "I felt like I had seen heaven," he shares of when the bandages came off. 💜🤍

With the Ministry of Health and support from Cure Blindness Project, we helped provide 502 no-cost cataract surgeries across five districts of Sierra Leone in 2025 and 2026.

Read to learn more: https://vist.ly/5mhx6

10/07/2026

"𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗲𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴."

For one woman in a remote village in northern Bangladesh, worsening vision made everyday tasks unsafe. For an elderly farmer, faces became hard to recognize and familiar paths harder to walk.

Then eye care came to them, and both received cataract surgery, along with transportation, meals, and care, at no cost.

"Now I can see clearly and do my daily work normally."

Helen Keller Intl is proud to be part of the VISION 2020/IAPB campaign, having completed over 44,500 school and community eye screenings across our programs since July 1.

Throughout October, we'll share stories of children and families whose lives changed because of access to quality eye care. From glasses that help a student see clearly in class to surgery that restores confidence and independence, these stories show what's possible when eye care is within reach.

10/07/2026

10/06/2026

At Theresa's health center in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, 10–15 children a month used to get vitamin A. 💊

Now it's 100, a sevenfold increase. Vitamin A is now part of routine immunizations and nutrition checkups, and outreach programs bring it to families in remote settlements. 💜🤍

Here's how she and her team closed the gap: 👇

https://vist.ly/5m9b3

10/05/2026

A childhood filled with potential starts with the basics: good nutrition to grow and clear vision to learn. 🤓

In the US, we provided no-cost vision screenings to more than 110,000 students last year – and glasses to those who needed them. 🏫

Around the world, we distributed more than 94.4 million vitamin A capsules to children under five. At about $1 a dose, it's one of the most cost-effective ways to protect a child's sight and life. 💊

Every child deserves the chance to thrive. 💜

10/01/2026

October is Blindness Awareness Month. 👀

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it," wrote our co-founder, Helen Keller.

More than a century later, her words still guide our work. One in seven people worldwide lives with vision loss – yet 90% of it is avoidable.

Last year, we supported 22.7 million people with essential vision care, from school eye screenings in New York City to cataract surgery in Sierra Leone. 💜

Help more people see a brighter future: helenkellerintl.org/donate

09/30/2026

Sierra Leone is leading the way on prenatal nutrition.

The Independent reports that it's the first lower-middle-income country in Africa to fully integrate prenatal vitamins with 15 essential vitamins and minerals into its national health system. 📰

We're proud to support the Ministry of Health in bringing these vitamins to mothers – with help from community health workers, faith leaders, and women's groups. 💜

https://vist.ly/5kf5c