International & Local Outreach

The scope of worldwide blindness is daunting.

There are 39 million blind individuals worldwide, and 285 million with some form of visual impairment—and 90 percent of them live in poverty in the developing world. Up to 60 percent of blind children die within one year, and a blind adult will only live two-thirds as long as sighted peers.

Four out of every five blind people could be cured at any modern eye clinic, but those in developing nations lack access to modern eye care—sometimes due to expense, but most often because there aren’t enough doctors. While the United States has 61 ophthalmologists per million people, most developing countries have only one or two per million.

The economic impact of blindness is staggering: for every blind person, 2.5 individuals are lost from the workforce as others must stop work or school to care for their vision-impaired relatives. Lost productivity adds up to $2.7 trillion each year.*

Learn more about the scope of worldwide blindness in this short video:

The John A. Moran Eye Center is a proud member of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.

The Moran Eye Center trains doctors, nurses, and other eye care professionals in more than 25 countries. We bring the most promising international surgeons to Utah for intensive training and send our own American residents abroad.

At medical camps in the field, Moran surgeons restore sight to hundreds of patients in a single week, while also helping local trainees gain experience.

In Utah, we provide charitable care to the thousands of individuals without adequate access to care. Our local outreach work is focused primarily on Salt Lake and Summit counties, as well as on the Navajo Nation in southern Utah.

Learn more in this video about our work on the Navajo Nation:

*Statistics come from the World Health Organization

Every year, Moran’s Global Outreach Division provides eye care in developing areas around the world and throughout its home state of Utah. 

Whether working at outreach medical eye camps, local hospitals, or community clinics, the Moran team focuses on teaching local physicians to perform surgeries and training local clinicians and staff to perform basic ophthalmic procedures.  

Explore the latest news and photos about the Moran Eye Center’s local and international missions:

Local Outreach

• Saving Sight for Homeless and Low-Income Utahns during Covid-19
• Moran Physicians and Volunteers Provide Vision Screenings and Glasses at Project Homeless Connect (PHOTO GALLERY)
• Moran Expands Care to Resettled Refugees in Utah
• Moran Continues Commitment to Provide Much-Needed Eye Care in Remote Four Corners Region (PHOTO GALLERY)
• Utahns in Need Receive Free Vision-Restoring Surgery at Operation Sight Day
• Moran Team Helps More Than 300 Former Refugees in Utah (PHOTO GALLERY)
• New Efforts Expand Moran's Outreach Care Closer to Home

International Outreach

• One Man’s Journey of Hope in Tanzania Highlights Moran Eye Center Outreach Care Worldwide
• Moran Team Trains Nurses on Front Lines of Eye Care in Tanzania
• Outreach Mission to Micronesia Helps Build Sustainable Eye Care in Island Nation
• Outreach Division Selected for New World Medical Humanitarian Project Award
• Alan S. Crandall, MD, Returns to South Sudan for Humanitarian Surgery Mission
• Moran Eye Center Continues to Expand Access to Eye Care in Tanzania (PHOTO GALLERY)