What We Do

For more than 70 years, Lions have been recognized throughout the world for their service to the blind and visually impaired. Back in 1925, when Helen Keller challenged the Lions to become “Knights of the Blind”, she could not have possibly imagined the impact of Lions commitment to blindness prevention.

Bringing rays of light to the darkness of countless people around the world, Lions have established the majority of eye banks worldwide, funded ground-breaking research on leading causes of blindness, organized eyeglass recycling efforts and helped thousands of visually impaired people develop the skills to live productive lives.

One significant effort in this area, SightFirst, was launched by the Lions in 1990 as an aggressive attack on the rising tide of blindness around the world. Forty million people are blind, yet 80 percent of all blindness is preventable or reversible.

Developed as a bold response to the Worldwide Health Organization’s prediction that the number of people who are blind would double in 25 years, SightFirst works to close the gap between existing health care services and those that are needed.