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Child blindness affects the whole family and is a particular problem abroad.
According to Imrul Khan, senior project manager for ORBIS, a not-for-profit eye health organisation, when children go blind they require the full attention of their family - which means that those who would normally go out to work cannot.
He told the Guardian that surgery to correct childhood blindness can reverse the fortunes of families in developing countries.
The paper pointed to figures from the World Health Organization, which show that there are 1.4 million blind children around the world - with almost half a million children losing their sight each year.
Three-quarters of those who lose their sight are to be found in developing countries.
Professor Clare Gilbert, from the International Centre for Eye Health, told the news provider: "Blind children become blind adults.
"Inadequate primary eye care and clinical services for children means that those with treatable causes of blindness remain blind, and to make matters worse the lack of support services results in blind children who are unable to participate fully in society."
She claimed that the world needs to be made aware that children with eye conditions that are left untreated potentially face a lifetime of visual loss.
Professor Kovin Naidoo is the Africa chair for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness said that the implementation of comprehensive and easily accessible eye care in developing countries will not happen overnight and will be impossible unless general healthcare standards are raised in the developing world.
Alternative treatments for common conditions - including Ortho K's overnight corrective contact lenses - could go some way to reducing the problem of visual loss amongst children.
Overnight contact lenses have already been shown to be an effective
cure for childhood myopia, halting and in some cases reversing the effects of the condition.
Written by Louise Cole
Eye Health: Find out if i-GO over night contact lenses will suit you.
