An auction of a close-up of Javier Bardem’s iris will benefit a charity that helps blind people in the poor world by providing assistance for thousands of eyes in exchange for the picture of one.
The Oscar-winning actor remarked, “We don’t really appreciate these things until we lose them: being able to see, hear, touch, and feel.” The emotional and spiritual shift that comes from regaining access to what you experience via sight, has such an influence on our emotions and sensibilities.
He explained that this is the reason he sent the powerful picture to Ojos del Mundo (Eyes of the World), who would auction it off as part of a brand-new fundraising initiative called Iris of the World.
With projects treating Saharawis in refugee camps in Algeria, as well as in Mali, Bolivia, and Mozambique, Ojos del Mundo was established in Barcelona in 2001 with the goal of treating preventable blindness, such as cataracts, through direct intervention and by training local people to carry out the work.
Over 37,000 individuals have had their sight restored as a result of the previous 20 years, and 13,000 Indigenous experts have been educated.
The photograph will be offered for sale as a one-of-a-kind, digital non-fungible token (NFT) and a print that has been verified by the actor.
Ojos del Mundo director Anna Barba stated at the campaign’s beginning that the foundation aimed to increase awareness of preventable blindness in addition to funding, noting that 90% of visually impaired individuals reside in the world’s most impoverished countries and that 55% of them are female.
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness estimates that 100 million of the 161 million persons with uncorrected vision have cataracts that can be removed. Another 510 million people have poor eyesight.
While Ojos del Mundo refrained from speculating on the amount they hoped the auction would raise, they did note that even the reserve price of €9,000 (£7,850) would cover the cost of 1,300 eye exams, €30,000 would cover the cost of an ophthalmologist’s four years of training, and €50,000 would cover the cost of 715 cataract operations.
In the 1992 movie Jamón Jamón, in which he starred opposite a young Penélope Cruz, Bardem, then 53, first gained notoriety.
The Spanish actor went on to play Raoul Silva, the antagonist in the James Bond movie Skyfall, after winning an Oscar for best-supporting actor in the Coen brothers ‘No Country for Old Men.
A lady in a Sightsavers eye clinic in Nigeria in May 2016.
Over 1 billion people’s sight might be improved by simple eye care, according to research.
In addition to contributing money to the Open Arms organization, which saves people crossing the Mediterranean, the pair, who married fellow Oscar winner Cruz in 2010, donated money to assist restore houses following the 2010 Haiti disaster.
