Overview
The World Sight Day (WSD) is an international day of awareness held every October (on the second Thursday) to focus attention on the global issue of eye health. World Sight Day is coordinated by the The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and supported by almost 200 IAPB Member Organisations globally.
WSD is the focal advocacy and PR event for IAPB and its members and partners each year, highlighting the fact that at least 1 billion people have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed.
Objective
- Raise public awareness of blindness and vision impairment as major international public health issues.
- Influence Governments/Ministers of Health to participate in and designate funds for national blindness prevention
programmes. - Educate target audiences about blindness prevention.
World Sight Day is our opportunity to:
- Help everyone understand the magnitude of the problem.
- Communicate that avoidable vision loss is a global challenge that we have the solutions for.
- Encourage everyone who can, to prioritise their own eye health.
World Sight Day 2022: LoveYourEyes
LoveYourEyes is a campaign that allows us all to promote eye health, the scale of the issue we face and the steps we can take to address it.
Vision Facts
- Good vision improves health and well-being at all ages.
- Majority of the eye diseases can be treated or their progression can be slowed significantly, if detected early.
- Children with a vision impairment are up to five times less likely to be in formal education and often achieve poorer outcomes.
- It is estimated that 40% of children are blind from eye conditions that could be managed if the child had access or prevented if the child had access to eye care services.
- Globally, over 90 million children and adolescents have vision impairment or blindness.
- Of the 1.1 billion people with vision loss, over 50% are female. Women are 40% less likely to utilise eye care services than men.
- In some parts of the world, if girls are blind or significantly vision impaired it is almost impossible for them to access education.
- 1.1 billion people experience vision loss primarily because they do not have access to eye health services when they need them, where they need them.
- Over 90% of those with uncorrected vision loss live in low- and middle-income countries.
- Unaddressed poor vision results in $411 billion in lost productivity each year.
Source of Info: WHO and IAPB.
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