THE QUEEN WILL GIVE A RECEPTION AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE TO CELEBRATE THE WORK OF THE QUEEN ELIZABETH DIAMOND JUBILEE TRUST
Tuesday, 29th October 2019
Her Majesty The Queen will give a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the work of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust on Tuesday, 29th October 2019.
Established as a time-limited charitable foundation by Commonwealth Heads of Government in 2012, the trust’s mission has been to curb avoidable blindness and empower a new generation of young leaders – The Queen’s Young Leaders.
Working to a five-year timeframe, these programmes have helped to enrich the lives of people across the Commonwealth. The trust will close as planned in 2020, with its mission living on in those it has supported, and those it has equipped to continue changing lives going forward.
Her Majesty will be joined for the reception by Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex, vice-patron of the trust.
The evening will bring together staff, supporters, partners and beneficiaries – including frontline ophthalmologists and eye health professionals from across the Commonwealth – to celebrate the trust’s achievements. The Countess of Wessex will give a speech at the reception, reflecting on the trust’s work.
Since 2014, the trust has helped more than 22 million people in Africa and the Pacific receive vital antibiotics to combat trachoma – the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness – and supported Malawi and Vanuatu in removing the risk of the disease. Both are on track to be certified as having eliminated trachoma by the World Health Organisation.
The trust has also provided sight-saving surgery to over 104,000 people suffering with trachoma trichiasis; ensured almost 19,200 people have received treatment to prevent the loss of sight due to diabetes; and established services to screen and treat premature babies at risk of Retinopathy of Prematurity – the leading cause of childhood blindness – across four districts in India, serving a population of nearly 50 million.