Last February, The Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF), an international eye health NGO, supported vision screening activities for schoolchildren in Apayao, Camarines Norte, Aklan, Albay, and Bukidnon under the Department of Education’s National Vision Screening Program.
During a school visit in Apayao, I observed a mother sitting beside her child as he worked his way through the vision chart.
As she watched him identify the shapes on the chart, I saw her mimicking his action, only to realize that she couldn’t see the shapes herself.
In that moment, I knew that it wasn’t her child’s vision that concerned her most, but her own.
Globally, women and girls make up 55% of the blind and visually impaired population, yet many struggle to access the eye care they need, further deepening cycles of poverty, according to The Fred Hollows Foundation.
On March 8, the world celebrates International Women’s Day. It serves as a platform to advocate for gender equality and highlight challenges faced by women worldwide.
A 2022 report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reveals a stark gender gap in disability, with women and girls making up 57.4% of those experiencing functional difficulty in seeing.
But vision impairment is just one piece of the puzzle—women also outnumber men across all domains of functional difficulties, including memory, communication, hearing, mobility, and self-care.
The most severe cases are seen among women aged 80 and above.
The disparity isn’t just biological; it’s deeply rooted in socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Women often face greater barriers to healthcare, with financial constraints, caregiving responsibilities, and the lower prioritization of their health limiting access to essential eye care services.
In rural areas in the Philippines, where women are disproportionately responsible for cooking, prolonged exposure to smoke from cooking fuels increases the risk of eye-related health issues.
Older women are particularly vulnerable. With less access to formal employment and pensions, many struggle to afford healthcare and assistive devices.
Meanwhile, caregiving expectations further sideline their own needs, leaving them either deprioritizing their health or entirely dependent on household support.
For many mothers, accessing essential health services isn’t just a matter of availability—it’s about whether the system accommodates their realities.
In the case of one mother who accompanied her child to a vision screening in Apayao, the challenge wasn’t just her own undiagnosed vision problems but the way healthcare services are structured.
Many screenings and medical interventions in the Philippines operate in silos, failing to consider the time constraints and caregiving responsibilities of women.
With services often fragmented and not designed to support those juggling childcare, work, and household duties, mothers are left with little opportunity to prioritize their own health.
This highlights a broader issue: without integrating healthcare access with the realities of caregiving, many women, especially those in lower-income or rural communities, will continue to fall through the cracks, their own medical needs overlooked in the process.
The Fred Hollows Foundation, in its work with key eye health stakeholders in the country, aims to change that.
The Foundation is developing a roadmap to strengthen community- and school-based eye health services, ensuring that the National Vision Screening Program is fully integrated into the country’s education and health systems.
Recognizing that women and girls experience higher rates of vision impairment and face greater barriers to healthcare, this initiative aims to bridge gender gaps in access to eye care.
Key efforts include strengthening collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Health, and local governments to ensure that school-based eye health services are designed to reach those most affected—particularly girls and young women.
Beyond service delivery, The Fred Hollows Foundation has worked closely with local government units to secure long-term investments in accessible eye health services.
This includes advocating for key local ordinances that institutionalize support for vulnerable populations, ensuring that vision care is not just a privilege but a right.
Because when healthcare is equitable, empowerment follows.
And when women and girls can see a clearer future, they can shape one, too.
About the author: Anna Abelinde works as Philippines Transition Manager and Program Quality Advisor for The Fred Hollows Foundation, an international NGO committed to preventing avoidable blindness.
Fred Hollows’ program in the Philippines is currently supported by the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
