Foresight Fact Sheet
Media | Foresight Fact Sheet
Bringing Light into People's Lives
Imagine what it is like to lose your sight. To gradually lose the definition of people's faces, colours, steps on the pavement... to steadily enter a world of greyness and no light.
But for millions of people around the world who were born with eye diseases that make them go blind, there is now real hope.
Although hereditary retinal diseases have been untreatable until now, recent dramatic progress in research means that cures will be found. Dubai-based, non-profit organisation, Foresight's aim is to accelerate finding cures for retinal diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa by supporting locally based and international initiatives. For some forms of eye disease a cure could be found within 10 years and it is likely that children will be the first to benefit.
Its goal is to accelerate finding cures for retinal diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa. It also seeks to improve the lives of people who are visually impaired and blind in the U.A.E. and run a support group for people with sight loss and mobility training in the use of white sticks.
Foresight is a U.A.E.-based non-profit making organisation and a branch of Tamkeen. It is recognised and advised by Retina International (which coordinates major retinal research internationally), Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai, the Emirates Medical Association and the Emirates Association for the Blind.
There are no official statistics relating to blindness in the U.A.E. but anecdotal evidence from all the leading ophthalmologists indicates:
- Blindness is the biggest cause of disability in the U.A.E. and probably the region
- Hereditary eye disease is the biggest cause of blindness in children in the U.A.E.
- The incidence of hereditary eye disease such as Retinitis Pigmentosa is double the worldwide average in the U.A.E. population
- Around the world, every five seconds, someone loses their sight
Tamkeen (the Arabic word for enabling) is a non-profit organisation, initiated by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum for the training of visually impaired citizens of working age. This unique training centre provides professional training courses that are not found anywhere else in the U.A.E. All courses including transport are free of charge.