In 2003, Sightsavers Ireland was born. And over the past 20 years, thanks to contributions from our amazing supporters, we’ve achieved some remarkable things.
With your support, we’ve helped to eliminate trachoma in five countries: Ghana, The Gambia, Malawi, Benin and Mali. What’s more, your gifts have helped to fund more than 5 million sight-saving cataract operations for people like Luyando, pictured above.
Yet there’s still so much we want to achieve in the next 20 years, and we want to kick things off in a big way. Our 2,000 Eyes appeal aims to raise enough money to fund an extra 2,000 child cataract operations before the end of 2023.
Below, you can track the progress of our appeal and watch as we get closer to our target. You’ll also find resources and stories for you to enjoy, including a quiz on the recent 20-year history of Ireland.
Be sure to keep checking back on this page: we’ll keep it updated with progress towards our appeal goal and new stories for you to enjoy.
Trachoma, a debilitating eye disease, wasn’t eliminated in Ireland until the mid-20th century. For more facts about the disease and Sightsavers’ work to tackle it, read our timeline of trachoma history.
Read the timelineOur ‘2,000 Eyes’ fundraiser will run from 21 August until 31 December 2023. During this time, we’ll be adding up online donations to our appeal and displaying the total on this page. Our goal is to raise €216,000, which is equivalent to the cost of 2,000 cataract operations, but all donations will be used to support our life-changing work wherever the need is greatest.
One-off donations are included at their face value (eg €10 donation = €10 displayed on this page), and regular gifts are included as the value of 12 months’ donations (eg €5 donation a month = €60 displayed on this page). We will update the information in the totaliser twice a week while the fundraiser is running, to give us time to validate donations. Thank you.