A doctor carries out cataract surgery at the Ho Chi Minh City Eye Hospital (Photo: SGGP)

The Ho Chi Minh City Sponsor Association for Poor Patients began providing free surgery for 1,000 cataract patients November 23 at the People’s Hospital 115 in the city.

The hospital will perform surgery on 200 patients in the first stage by coordination with doctors from Cho Ray and the Ho Chi Minh City Eye Hospital.

There are around 380,000 blind people in Vietnam -- or 0.59 percent of the country’s population -- with women accounting for two thirds of them. Most women go blind due to diseases like cataract, trachoma, diabetes and glaucoma.