Top-rated charity

Sightsavers — Deworming programme

Sightsavers — Deworming programme

Sightsavers works on a range of programmes to prevent blindness, advocate for disability rights, and fight neglected tropical diseases. It improves children’s lives and future prospects by treating two neglected tropical diseases — schistosomiasis and intestinal worms — with an intervention sometimes known as “deworming.”

What problem is Sightsavers’ deworming programme working on?

Schistosomiasis and intestinal worms are two parasitic diseases found mainly in tropical and subtropical climates — particularly in poor communities without access to safe drinking water and sanitation — that have a detrimental impact on children’s nutrition, health, and education.

According to the World Health Organization, 1.5 billion people worldwide are infected with intestinal worms, and 600 million school-aged children live in at-risk areas. Intestinal worms can cause a variety of health problems, including nutritional issues and problems with cognitive and physical development.

Schistosomiasis affects 240 million people worldwide, with more than 700 million people living in endemic areas. Schistosomiasis can “lead to serious long-term problems affecting the digestive, urinary, respiratory and nervous systems.” It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people die from schistosomiasis every year.

Both diseases can also affect social and economic outcomes, like employment and school attendance.

What does Sightsavers’ deworming programme do?

As part of its deworming programme, Sightsavers:

Sightsavers reports that in the last project year (2021 to 2022), it treated more than 5.6 million children for schistosomiasis and/or intestinal worms.

Why is Sightsavers’ deworming programme one of our top-rated charities?

Sightsavers' deworming programme meets our criteria to be a top-rated charity based on the recommendations of one of our trusted evaluators, Founders Pledge. This recommendation was made on the basis of their internal evaluation of Sightsavers in 2023. Learn more about charity evaluators we trust and why.


Some other information relevant to Sightsavers’ cost-effectiveness is:

At Giving What We Can, we focus on the effectiveness of an organisation’s work, which considers much more than just the administration costs of the organisation. Learn more about this common “overhead myth” and our approach to charity evaluation.

Why donate through the Giving What We Can donation platform?

Your donations through our portal are tax deductible in the UK, US, and the Netherlands. Giving What We Can does not take any fees from donors using our platform or from charities listed on our platform. We are independently funded to promote our mission of making giving effectively and significantly a cultural norm. Read more on our transparency page.