Ethiopia

Our Work

In Ethiopia, Light for the World is one of the key players in eye health, disability inclusion, economic empowerment, and inclusive education. We have been supporting our programme-implementing partners since 2004. In 2010, we registered as an international NGO and established a country office better to coordinate financial and technical support to our partners.

What we do

We enable eye health services

We help strengthen the health system by providing supplies/consumables and ophthalmic equipment to different facilities. We train eye care professionals to provide quality services. Through our child eye health programme, notably through the “1,2,3 I can see!” programme, we enable children with low vision to unleash their potential in school. Currently, we support seven eye health project partners in the Amhara, Tigray; Southern Nations, Nationalities, Peoples’ Region, Addis Ababa city administration and Oromia Regional State.

We tackle Neglected Tropical Diseases

Light for the World is a significant player in eliminating Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) such as trachoma, river blindness, and lymphatic filariasis in Ethiopia. We support two large NTD programmes in West Oromia and Tigray, providing technical, financial, monitoring and coordination support. Our cross-cutting strategy involves mass drug administration, community sensitisation programmes and health education for positive behaviour initiatives that together aim to prevent and eliminate NTDs as a public health problem.

A woman stands in Operation Room and operates on the eyes of the child. The room is full of medical devices and two other nurses who support the operation.

Light for the world enables training for ophthalmologists to expand eye health services in Ethiopia.

A man with an eyepatch on the right eye smiles into the camera. He had cataracts and just got operated.

Shanko can see again after cataract surgery made possible by Light for the World. © Arbol Pictures PLC

A small girl in a red dress stands smiling next to walking bars and smiles into the camera. Her mother sits next to her in a violet dress and smiles at her daughter.

Three-year-old Siket who has Cerebral Palsy gets support with walking through a Light for the World programme.

A boy stands on a chair next to an older girl and they point on posters on a yellow wall that teach sign language.

We support schools to become more inclusive. In this school in Ethiopia, children learn sign language with different resources.

We champion inclusive education

We support 16 projects with 14 implementing partners working in 144 schools to ensure children with disabilities have proper access to education. In the 2022 school year, 2,500 children with disabilities were enrolled in Southern Nation, Nationalities, and People (SNNPR) and the Amhara Regional States. Disability Inclusion Community Development (DICD) projects are the backbone of our inclusive education programme. They dismantle discrimination and promote integration at the community level, empowering children with disabilities and their families and paving the way for these children to go to school.

We promote inclusive economic empowerment

We believe that adults and young people with disabilities, including families of children with disabilities, should be able to live a dignified life free of poverty. We encourage young people with disabilities to participate in marketable and job-driven inclusive community-based skills training (CBST) to set up and run their businesses successfully. Our interventions are evidence-based and scalable. Together with Organisations of People with Disabilities (OPDs), our Disability Inclusion Facilitators (DIFs) enable mainstream organisations and government offices to provide inclusive economic empowerment programmes. Light for the World is recognised as an expert in inclusive economic empowerment in Ethiopia.