Open Your Eyes - October 10th is World Sight Day!
October 10th 2019
Today is World Sight Day!!
What is World Sight Day?
World Sight Day is an annual event held on the second Thursday of October and is an international day of awareness for the global issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment. Initially started by the Lions Club International Foundation as part of the Sight First campaign in the year 2000, World Sight Day is now coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) under the VISION 2020 global initiative which aims to promote “a world in which nobody is needlessly visually impaired”
The main aims of World Sight Day include:
- To raise public awareness of issues surrounding blindness and visual impairment.
- To influence Governments and Health Ministers to participate in and donate funds to blindness prevention programs.
- To educate about blindness prevention.
FACT: 285 million people around the globe live with low vision and blindness
FACT: of these, 39 million people are blind and 246 million have moderate or severe visual impairment
FACT: 90% of blind people live in low-income countries
FACT: 80% of visual impairment is avoidable - i.e. readily treatable and/or preventable
FACT: every 5 seconds someone in the world goes blind
FACT: Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness (and they are curable)
FACT: The number of people blind from infectious causes has greatly reduced in the past 20 years
FACT: An estimated 19 million children are visually impaired
FACT: About 65% of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises only 20% of the world's population. Increasing elderly populations in many countries mean that more people will be at risk of age-related visual impairment.
FACT: Restorations of sight, and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in health care
So ask yourself this…When was the last time you had an eye exam? This World Sight Day let’s pledge to book an eye exam and encourage others to do the same!
Click to close