Construction manager Mace is spearheading a campaign to fund the building of an African eye hospital.
Sight Savers, the charity that tries to prevent and cure blindness, estimates that the suffering of 80% of Africa's 7 million blind people could have been avoided with simple surgery.

Mace is hoping to build a regional eye centre to treat blindness in the Gambia, west Africa. It would be located in Serekunda, eight miles south of the capital Banjul.

The cost of designing, building and equipping the centre is estimated at £1.4m, of which £750,000 has to be raised from public donation.

Mace is holding fund-raising events this year as part of its contribution to the campaign.

The eye centre is part of the Health for Peace initiative, involving several of the poorest west African states, who have divided up responsibility for specific fields of health. The Gambia is in charge of the prevention of blindness.

Hannah Faal, Sight Savers' eye care consultant, said the centre was a key part its goal of eliminating preventable blindness by 2020.

  • For more information, log on to www.sightsavers.org.uk