The Second Sight story

UK registered charity 1080445

We are a sight charity founded by ophthalmologist Lucy Mathen, a former TV reporter.
In 2000 Dr Mathen made an investigative trip across the breadth of rural north India. Curable blindness from cataract was almost endemic in this region.
She found hospitals full of expensive equipment provided by international charities.
And a paucity of eye surgeons.

The poorest, blindest state was Bihar. One of the few Indian ophthalmologists working for the rural poor was Dr Helen Nirmala Rao. For a decade, we provided the ‘missing’ eye surgeons to work alongside her team and at other remote rural hospitals.
This simple intervention kick-started a reverse brain drain of committed local doctors.

25 years on, it is a wholly different scenario.
There has never before been so many local clinicians ready to use their skills in the rural areas and small towns of Bihar where they are most needed. We work with a growing network of district-based eye hospitals. Most are clinician-led. All provide permanent and comprehensive eye services.

Our/their Small is Beautiful and Local modus operandi has never been more fit for purpose.
The climate emergency is having a devastating impact in Bihar. Hospitals must pay heed to their carbon footprint. The Bigger is Better approach of the 20th century - constructing and expanding a few huge hospitals and transporting patients long distances - is clearly no longer an appropriate model.

Mindful of the dire poverty of the people of Bihar we remain a no office, no salaries, no admin and no expenses charity.

  ‘To see Second Sight in action challenging precepts, advising and encouraging amazingly dedicated, talented local doctors and enabling them to make a huge contribution to their communities is the equivalent of attending a masterclass in how an NGO should be run.’

Kay Brenders, Management Consultant, Canada

‘Second Sight is everything a charity ought to be - utterly transparent, meeting an unmet need and quick to change with changing circumstances.’

Ray Kipling former Deputy Director RNLI charity, UK

“ I continue to marvel at the cost-effectiveness of Second Sight and the team’s seemingly boundless energy and commitment to eradicating needless blindness …there can be no comparison between large organisations working in the same field in terms of value for money or need for financial assistance - Second Sight wins both of these contests hands down.”

Prof Phillip Bloom, Ophthalmologist, UK 

For more information or to donate please email : lucymathen@yahoo.com or pick up the phone and talk to us.
+44 207 359 1315 or + 44 7957300136
Read the Blog page for updates