Why it Matters

Preventable blindness is rising while opportunities to train future ophthalmologists are declining. To understand our impact, it is important to first understand the challenges facing eye care in South Africa today.

Our Dual-Impact Model

The Atlantic Eye Foundation's dual-impact model delivers both immediate patient benefit and long-term healthcare sustainability. Every surgery restores sight, reduces waiting lists, and supports vulnerable patients today, while simultaneously creating training opportunities that develop future ophthalmologists, strengthen the public healthcare system, and expand access to eye care for generations to come.

Our model creates a multiplier effect. Increased training leads to greater surgical capacity, allowing more patients to receive sight-restoring care while creating further opportunities to train future specialists. The result is a stronger ophthalmology workforce and sustainable improvements in access to eye care.

Why Training Matters

South Africa is facing a growing eye care crisis. An estimated 950,000 people live with moderate to severe vision loss, while approximately 300,000 are blind. Cataracts remain the leading cause of blindness, yet public-sector surgical capacity continues to fall short of demand.

At the same time, the country's ophthalmology workforce is under increasing pressure. According to Orbis International, South Africa has only six ophthalmologists per million people—far below what is needed to serve a population of more than 63 million. Most specialists work in the private sector, leaving already overstretched public hospitals struggling to meet the needs of underserved communities.

The challenge extends beyond patient care. Severe public-sector budget constraints have resulted in frozen Medical Officer and specialist training posts across many provinces. While South Africa continues to graduate increasing numbers of doctors, an estimated 1,800 qualified doctors remain unemployed, unable to access the clinical experience and training opportunities needed to progress towards specialisation.

Historically, Medical Officers gained invaluable surgical, clinical, and research experience within high-volume state hospitals before entering registrar training. Today, many of these opportunities are disappearing, creating a bottleneck in the ophthalmology training pipeline at the very moment the country needs more specialists. With the journey to becoming an ophthalmologist taking up to 17 years, strengthening this pipeline is essential to securing the future of eye care in South Africa.

Without intervention, fewer ophthalmologists will be trained, surgical waiting lists will continue to grow, and preventable blindness will affect increasing numbers of South Africans. By investing in training today, we can strengthen the future ophthalmology workforce, expand access to eye care, and ensure more patients receive the sight-restoring treatment they need.

Why Access to Eye Care Matters

South Africa faces a growing burden of preventable blindness. An estimated 950,000 people live with moderate to severe vision loss, while approximately 300,000 are blind. Cataracts remain the leading cause of blindness, yet access to sight-restoring surgery remains limited for many who rely on the public healthcare system.

The World Health Organization recommends that countries perform at least 2,000 cataract surgeries per million people annually to eliminate avoidable cataract blindness. South Africa's public sector is estimated to perform only around half that number, leaving thousands of patients waiting months or even years for treatment.

For many patients, these delays mean more than vision loss. They mean loss of independence, reduced mobility, unemployment, and increased reliance on family members for daily care. In vulnerable households, the impact often extends far beyond the individual patient, affecting entire families and communities.

Supporting the Public Sector

We work alongside public hospitals, healthcare providers, and funding partners to reduce surgical backlogs and expand access to high-quality ophthalmic care for underserved communities. By identifying patients already on public-sector waiting lists and supporting additional surgical capacity, we help ensure that more people receive timely, sight-restoring treatment.

Restoring Sight. Restoring Opportunity.

Every surgery represents more than a medical intervention. It restores independence, dignity, mobility, and quality of life. By reducing preventable blindness, we help individuals, families, and communities participate more fully in education, employment, and everyday life.

Why Advancing South African Research Matters

Research plays a critical role in improving patient outcomes, informing clinical practice, and strengthening healthcare systems. We support high-quality ophthalmic research focused on South Africa’s unique eye health challenges, generating evidence that is relevant to local patients, healthcare providers, and policymakers.

Much of the world's ophthalmic research is conducted in high-income countries with healthcare systems, disease patterns, and patient populations that differ significantly from those found in South Africa. Yet South Africa faces its own unique challenges, including unequal access to care, high rates of preventable blindness, advanced disease presentation, and resource-constrained public healthcare environments. Addressing these challenges requires locally generated evidence that can inform effective, contextually relevant solutions.

Our founding members are experienced clinician-researchers with internationally recognised publications and decades of combined experience in ophthalmology, clinical research, and academic medicine. Through strategic partnerships with public hospitals, universities, and healthcare institutions, we conduct and support research that reflects the realities of South African eye care while contributing to the broader advancement of the field.

Research as a Training Opportunity

Research is also an essential component of specialist development. As competition for ophthalmology registrar positions continues to increase, academic achievement, research experience, scientific presentations, and peer-reviewed publications have become increasingly important indicators of a candidate's commitment to the specialty.

For this reason, we actively involve Medical Officers and aspiring ophthalmologists in research projects, providing mentorship, academic supervision, and opportunities to contribute meaningfully to scientific studies. Through this process, trainees develop critical skills in evidence-based medicine, scientific writing, data analysis, and clinical investigation while strengthening their applications for specialist training programmes.

Generating Knowledge. Developing Future Specialists.

Our research programme serves a dual purpose: advancing knowledge that improves eye care for South Africans today while helping develop the clinician-scientists, academic leaders, and ophthalmologists who will shape the future of eye health in South Africa.

By investing in locally relevant research, we are not only improving patient care—we are helping build the next generation of specialists equipped to lead, innovate, and respond to the unique challenges facing ophthalmology across Africa.