All children deserve the eye care they need to learn and thrive.

I often think of Alemtsehay, a nine-year-old girl from Ethiopia whose world had gradually narrowed because of developmental cataracts in both eyes. She had stopped going to school years earlier, and everyday moments – eating, playing and exploring the world around her – had become extraordinarily difficult for her to manage. Like other children her age, Alemtsehay wanted to learn, play, and explore with her peers. But without access to eye care, cataracts kept her from school and from living her everyday life.

To fix her cataracts, Alemtsehay underwent surgery on both eyes. And in just a few hours, treatment that is routine in a well-equipped hospital had opened up the possibility of a different future for her.

I also remember Kalkidan from Ethiopia, whose refractive error made learning difficult. Uncorrected refractive error is the leading cause of vision impairment in children, yet for many families in sub-Saharan Africa, even an eye examination and a pair of glasses remain out of reach. Kalkidan received glasses to continue learning, but many children do not.

Alemtsehay and Kalkidan had different needs, but their stories raise the same question: what good is effective treatment if a child cannot access that treatment?

For many children, the barriers begin long before they reach a suitable clinic. Eye conditions go unnoticed because screening and eye examinations are not made readily available; families struggle with transport or treatment costs, while shortages of trained professionals, equipment and referral services can delay care; children with disabilities and those living in underserved communities often face additional obstacles.

When a child struggles to see the classroom board, read a page or follow a lesson, learning can become exhausting and confidence suffers. The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) has highlighted that children with uncorrected refractive error learn approximately half as much as peers with good or corrected vision (1). Globally, one year of sub-optimal learning due to uncorrected refractive error results in 6.3 million equivalent years of schooling loss annually. This is why child eye health cannot be treated as a one-off screening activity. Screening matters, but it must connect children to comprehensive examinations, spectacles or treatment, and follow-up care. It also requires stronger links between health and education services, trained staff and systems that can continue reaching children.

My role as Eye Health Expert at Light for the World focuses on exactly this. In Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Uganda, we work with governments and partners to strengthen eye-health services and bring care to children. This includes supporting school-based approaches (2), building health-worker capacity, and training local ophthalmologists and other specialists (3). The goal is not simply to identify more children with eye conditions, but to ensure they receive the care they need.

In November, the inaugural Global Summit for Eye Health (4) offers an opportunity to turn shared ambition into action for the 1 billion people living with avoidable sight loss. Light for the World has submitted a commitment of US$15 million across four countries, to reach more than 3.5 million people by 2030, including screening more than 1 million children. Such commitments matter most when they help build stronger systems and lasting access to care.

When I think about what progress means, I return to Alemtsehay and Kalkidan. Progress is measured not only in the number of children screened, spectacles provided or operations completed, but in what becomes possible afterwards: learning with confidence in school, playing with friends and participating fully in life. No child’s future should be limited by an eye condition that could have been treated or corrected. Education systems, governments and communities have a duty to turn commitments into concrete policies, so accessible, quality eye care reaches every child, not just those who live close to a clinic.