Did you know that two thirds of all people who are blind are female or that 80% of blindness is avoidable and 90% of blindness exists in developing countries?

As part of Sightsavers development education initiatives for secondary schools, the team ran the Snap A Sight photo competition asking students nationwide to turn their camera phones around from taking ‘selfies’ and instead to snap a sight from the world around them – the sight that they would miss the most, if they lost their vision.

Through the mediums of photography and social media, Sightsavers aimed to engage teenagers about the fact that people living in developing countries are at greater risk of losing their sight to preventable diseases.

By entering the competition, entrants had to think about what sight loss would mean to them and to think about the unjust reasons why more people are at risk of losing their sight in developing countries.

Many of the entrants were CSPE and Transition Year students who heard about the competition through their teachers using the Seeing Our World (a resource that explores blindness and human rights around the world produced in 2013) in their schools or else met with Sightsavers team at our interactive stall at this year’s BT Young Scientist. By using human rights education as a platform, students could explore the work of Sightsavers on issues such as global health, social exclusion and poverty.

Out of 340 entries across Ireland, this year’s overall winner was Tharu Polgolla (15) who was awarded the top accolade. Second and third place went to Shane Kenneally (16) and Sophie Hanley (16). Bronagh Dunne won in the 19+ category.

The panel of judges included Cian Healy (Irish rugby player), Rick O’Shea (Radio Presenter) Una Mullally (Journalist/Broadcaster) and Nialler9 (Music Blogger) who helped to spread the word about the competition to over a million people on Twitter!

Competition entrants attended an exhibition of the photos in Filmbase, Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin on Saturday 8th March where prizes were presented kindly sponsored by Viking. Attendees got to hear first-hand from Sightsavers CEO Michael Marren about the impact of avoidable blindness and also watched videos that brought the problem and the solution to life.

View the longlist of entrants and photos on www.sightsaverscompetition.ie/finalists

Access Seeing Our World: a CSPE and Transition Year resource that explores blindness and human rights around the world (2013) or contact schools@sightsavers.ie  to request a copy or for enquires. More info at www.sightsavers.ie/secondaryschools and https://twitter.com/SightsaversIE

Check out the Sean Burke’s Robert De Niro impression announcing the photo competition in November last year: