Eye health for all: the Barraquer Foundation's commitment

08/10/2026

Every October, World Sight Day invites us to focus on the importance of eye health and the need to ensure equitable access to eye care.

This year, to mark World Sight Day, we have organised an event at Barraquer to raise awareness of the social work carried out by the Barraquer Foundation, share the different projects and initiatives we are involved in and provide an insight into how we work to make eye health more accessible to everyone.

At the Barraquer Foundation, we work in four areas — care, prevention, training and research — which allow us to act in different ways with a common purpose: to enable more people to look after their vision.

We look after you: bringing eye care closer to people

This is precisely the aim of the Mirem per tu programme, through which we have been providing free ophthalmological and optometric care to people in vulnerable situations since 2019. One of the most tangible expressions of our commitment is the eye health screening sessions we organise in collaboration with social organisations.

Through these sessions, we work directly with our partner organisations to facilitate access to ophthalmological and optometric examinations and detect potential vision problems. In recent years, we have consolidated Mirem per tu as one of the main areas of our healthcare activity.

During the 2023–2024 period, we organised 13 eye health screening sessions with partner social organisations, providing care to 380 people. These initiatives allow us to bring preventive care and eye care to people across the region who, due to their circumstances, may face greater barriers to accessing these services.

Projects that extend our commitment to society

The Barraquer Foundation's commitment has continued to grow through new initiatives. This year, together with the ONCE Foundation and the ONCE Low Vision Foundation (FOBV), we launched the campaign Cada mirada merece un futuro claro, offering free optometric and ophthalmological examinations to around 300 children in vulnerable situations across six different autonomous communities in Spain.

We have also strengthened our collaboration with General Optica through a new charitable donation campaign to facilitate access to eye care for vulnerable people.

Our commitment is also reflected in the field of research and innovation. We are part of the research consortium behind the iVISION project, a pioneering initiative developing a new generation of retinal prostheses to advance the restoration of vision in people with degenerative retinal diseases. In this project, we work alongside IFAE, ICFO, ICN2 and the Institut de la Vision at Sorbonne University, with the support of the ”la Caixa” Foundation.

All these initiatives share a common goal: to help reduce inequalities in access to eye care and move towards more accessible and equitable care. From direct care and prevention to research and innovation, we work across different areas to respond to current needs and help develop solutions for the future.

World Sight Day gives us an opportunity to highlight the importance of eye health and recognise the value of this work. However, our commitment continues throughout the year through projects, partnerships and initiatives aimed at making a positive impact on health and helping to reduce social and healthcare inequalities. Because ensuring good eye health also means moving towards a fairer and more equitable society.

And you, were you aware of the projects and initiatives we promote through the Barraquer Foundation?